Mr & Mrs Jackson
by Hero of Olympus in Disguise
Summary: SEQUEL TO THE LIFE OF PERCY AND ARTEMIS J! Read on as our hero ventures through the dark memories of Tartarus, a place that stays with a piece of his soul. Will Artemis be able to pull him to the other side? Or will she fail? Secrets watch in the dark, waiting to find daylight. Is Artemis Percy's only way out of this madness? What really happened to Percy in Tartarus? More inside.
1. Artemis and Percy, alone? Oh no

**Summary:** **SEQUEL TO THE LIFE OF PERCY AND ARTEMIS J! Read on as our hero ventures through the dark memories of Tartarus, a place that stays with a piece of his soul. Will Artemis be able to pull him to the other side? Or will she fail? Secrets watch in the dark, waiting to find daylight. Is Artemis Percy's only way out of this madness? What really happened to Percy in Tartarus? Why can't Artemis seem to reach to him all the sudden? Evil lurks in the shadows, watching his every move, what "Evil" doesn't know? _He's_ anticipating his. Will this large family be able to overcome their differences, and come together to fight for what they all have in common? I don't know, so let's read!**

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 **Third Person:**

"I'm home!" Artemis walked through the front door. She walked into the kitchen, where she knew she would find her handsome husband, and walked up behind him. She massaged his shoulders a little as she peered over his slumped and loose body, she kissed him on the cheek and peeked at his drink. _Must've been a tough day._

Scotch.

"Honey, you okay?" He glanced up from his almost empty glass and smiled. Hestia had dropped him off a day ago, all he did was sleep, eat and drink. "Where are the kids?" She sat in his lap and downed the rest of his scotch, "They went to spend their time with Apollo for the week." He started to kiss her neck.

"Mhm?" she mumbled, in total bliss. Give the poor woman a break, she loves her kids to death, but sometimes a woman needs some alone time with her husband, especially when said husband is loyal, handsome and very- let's not go there. Her answer? More kisses.

Hands roamed as Percy picked his wife up and stumbled to their bedroom, where they would spend the rest of the evening, night and morning, alone.

 **(Sorry if that made you uncomfortable but it's sorta important for the rest of the story. Good to be back:))**

"Husk?" Artemis snuggled more into Percy's bare chest and wrapped her leg around his waist (sideways), searching for a heat source other than the blanket covering them. "Hm?" he set his hand on her thigh and hummed in response. She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him, "Why were you really in the kitchen?" his hand stopped moving and he looked down at the cloud of auburn on his chest, his hand continued moving up and down on her leg, "Well, I had a really rough day the day before, I uh, finally talked to Mom about something, came home and decided to just have a drink." "Really?" Artemis mumbled under her breath, "M-hm." He hummed, _again_. _Mmm,_ Artemis mumbled when Percy wrapped his arm around her and let himself become a little warmer. Percy's eyes snapped open and he looked over at his wife. All the sudden, out of no where, he turned his body around so that he was on top of her, "What do you think you're doing?" He asked, a smile on his face. She giggled and squirmed underneath him, "Nothing." She replied innocently. He rubbed his nose with hers, "Nahuh I don't think that was nothing. Are you trying to tell me something with that hand of yours Mrs. Jackson?" **(Imagination...)** she smiled up at him, "Maybe…" she trailed off at the end. He smiled and started to kiss her ne- "Artemis?! Percy?! Dad assigned a new target for the hu-u-unt! Wait, please tell me you guys are decent. I don't want another walk in." Percy and Artemis both groaned super loudly, _Can't a guy/woman catch a break around here?!_ They both screamed in their heads. Artemis kissed Percy for a few extra seconds and smiled at him, "Something to look forward to for tonight." They both got up, showered and got dressed. Percy- his cloak, boots, bandolier and belt, weapons, etc. Artemis- her bow, quiver, boots, and hunters garb. They ran down the stairs, and greeted the daughter of Zeus, Thalia. Artemis talked to Thalia about the target, and Percy went to have some more whiskey. When he was out of earshot, Thalia mouthed, _"What's up with my brother?"_ Artemis shrugged and told her she didn't know. They left a quick not for Apollo, explaining why they are gone, and were off to join the rest of the hunt.


	2. Weird

**Word Count: 1,600**

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 **Third Person POV:**

As Thalia, Artemis, and Percy trekked back to the hunts location, Percy lagged half a click behind the two women, head down shoulders slumped, and heavy feet crunching dried leaves under their weight. When Thalia noticed this, she motioned for Artemis to continue ahead while she stood to wait for her brother/cousin **(confusing right?)** to catch up with her. Once he did, they both continued walking together in silence. She didn't know what to take as a bad sign for her distraught brother; his slumped form, the alcohol in his breath, the way he didn't care about the way he was leaving sloppy, noisy tracks, or his silence, but either way, she didn't like it.

Not. One. Bit.

Why? Because she's seen that look on his face too many times for her to count. When he was blaming himself for his friends' death, when he kept on saying it was his fault that something bad happened, during all occasions, he had resulted to this; a man with clouded, dull eyes that seemed distant like his thoughts.

"Percy?"

"Yeah Thals?"

"What happened?"

He paused for a moment before continuing the journey. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at her, but it turned into more of a grimace. Thalia observed how his fingers just _itched_ to go somewhere, but he forced them to stay put in his pockets. She noticed how his breathing hitched, and how he started sweating from absolutely nowhere. Every little wrong move: she noticed.

The way his eyebrows scrunched together,

The way he practically had to _hold_ down his own hands to his sides,

The way he started to walk with a little limp,

The way his heart even sped up,

The way he all the sudden looked uncomfortable, the way he always does when he is hiding something.

She noticed everything.

 _He has a secret,_ she thought, _I'm going to figure out what it is._

 **Percy's POV:**

No one can know. No one. It took me _years_ to bury this secret, and I don't plan on letting it see daylight anytime soon.

Once I reached my wife and I's tent, I saw my wife in all her glory, and smiled at her. I walked up to her and gave her a very passionate kiss. This kiss wasn't like others though, it's like I had poured all my fury in this kiss, so it felt rough, _needy._ We both wanted more than a kiss, way _more._ My hands gripped her thighs and I pulled her up, she wrapping her legs around my waist. I set her on the nightstand, and kissed her with such fiery passion, and so roughly, our lips were bruised. With one hand behind her neck and the other on the side of her thigh, and both of hers roaming my chest, we kissed very sloppily, " _kiss_ Percy _kiss_ Husk," to let her talk I moved onto her jaw and neck, "Mm… Percy no. Pe-er-rcy. Come on, we're with the hu-hunt." I nibbled behind her ear and pulled her even closer, "Come on My Huntress, please?" I mumbled into her hair before going back to kissing the side of her neck, "No. I told you to wait for tonight, when we're _alone."_ I groaned very loudly and pulled away. "Wh-y?" I whined like a child, she laughed and gave me a nice long kiss on the lips, "Because, how would you feel if you heard, er, _noises_ when going to visit your father, or friends?" I deadpanned, "Exactly. Now come on honey, we've got a few monsters to hunt." She smiled at me, fixed herself, and together we walked out and went hunting…..

For food. :) **(got ya!)**

"Can we go home now?" I whined. Thalia and Artemis glared at me, both for different… _reasons_. We were in the mapping tent, where we always plan battle strategies and track our enemies. I'm not very fond of it.

Right now, it was keeping me from my sleep.

"No. If you don't want to be here at the moment, go get me a slice of cake. I'm hungry." I raised an eyebrow but obeyed. We _just_ ate fifteen minutes ago. How can she be hungry? Doesn't matter, gives me a reason to take a quick nap. I sauntered to my tent, and into bed.

But I couldn't fall asleep.

Something told me not to. Something, something that I was told around a decade ago, was keeping me awake. I sighed, standing up and stripped my upper body free, and stood in front of the bathroom mirror, letting loose control over my body. I blankly stared at my torso; my scars of the past. I stared at my body, memories of how I got each one flooding through my brain. I raised my arm up high and looked at a small golden tattoo; Kronos's hand writing. I immediately put my arm back down when I felt two small arms slither around my body. I looked in the mirror to find Artemis resting her chin on my shoulder. "You never brought me that cake I asked for." She pouted. I smiled and turned around to face her, "Sorry?" she nuzzled her face into the crook of my neck. I heard her mumble a quick _"You better be"_ before I kissed the top of her head. Her bare fingers traced the indents on my back, all 36,500 of my tallies, and 10 scratches from thin nails.

She let her arms slide down the side of my body, but they came to a halt when she felt small bumps on my right side, she pulled away from me and tried to lift my arm to see what it is, "What's this?" she mumbled under her breath. "What is it?" she started laughing, I guess this is the only way to distract her. I lifted her up, and carried her over to our bed.

 **Artemis's POV:**

I woke up under a white thin sheet to find Percy's bare back to me, my arms around his waist and my right leg over his [leg]. I pulled my head away from its spot, between his shoulder blades, and sat up, holding the sheet to just below my neck.

He thinks he's so slick. Well, I'm lucky he sleeps on his left side, leaving his right side out on the open. I leaned over to check if he's still asleep, and slowly pulled my arm from under him. I slid my arm under the little space between his side and arm, and started tracing little bumps.

Wrong move.

He took in a long deep breath, making me freeze, and slowly let it go. I got back into the position I was in before, my leg stretched over his, and both my hand meeting on his very defined chest. His breathing became uneven before he turned around to face me, my eyes closed. "I know you're awake." He grumbled with his "morning voice." My eyes fluttered open to meet sea green ones, the very same eyes I fell in love with years ago. I smiled and pulled him closer, "And? Can't a woman marvel at the sight of her very handsome husband?" I teased him. I practically _felt_ him turn red.

 **One month later: Artemis's POV:**

"Who knew it could be so hard to find a darn monster nest?!" I slammed my fist on the map, frustrated. Father, one month ago, assigned for us to hunt and shut down a breeding ground for monsters, but it seems to be _hiding_ from _me_. _No one_ hides from me. _No one._ "Relax. Maybe… we're not looking close enough." Percy suggested as he stepped close behind me and started massaging my shoulders. I moaned with the relaxing gesture and leaned back into his chest, "But we've looked _everywhere._ Where in the name of the gods could a _huge_ breeding ground _not_ be found?" I asked him. He shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe, you need a break. Come on, let's go hunt tonight's dinner. That always calms you down." He suggested. What a thoughtful gentle man. I grudgingly nodded my head in agreement and grabbed my quiver and bow. We ran in the woods, and two hours later at full speed, I felt tired. I threw myself to the trunk of a random tree and wiped the sweat off my forehead. Thalia and Percy abruptly stopped in their tracks, "You guys (pant) can go (pant) ahead. I'll…. I'll catch. Up." I panted, out of breath. Thalia tilted her head to the side like a lost puppy- ooh a puppy! "Can we get a puppy?!" I asked in excitement. Thalia's eyes widened and Percy started to roll on the floor like an idiot, holding his sides with laughter, "Oh my gods! The great Artemis, asking for a puppy!" he laughed. What's so funny? "Lady Artemis, are you okay?" I looked up at her and raised an eyebrow, "Why wouldn't I be?" I asked seriously. The only thing I got for a response was a blush. What's up with her?

"N-nothing."

Did I say that out loud?

"Yes and yes."

Oh.

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 **Hmm…. Gee, I wonder why Artemis is so…cranky, childish, an-**

 **Artemis (surprise surprise) HEY!**

 **Me: as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, childish and hungry. Well, we'll figure out soon enough, all ya have to do is join Percy on his adventure, and join me in my journey of writing this story :) and again, thanks for voting for a sequel! I was really hoping you guys would. Till next time!**

 **-Hero of Olympus in disguise.**


	3. Pineapples

**Third Person:**

Artemis sat there and just, caught her breath as Percy decided to look around the area and look for some good game (something to hunt) Thalia decided to stay with Artemis in case something decided to come attack her, much to the offense of Artemis. She sat grumpily, her arms crossed in front of her chest, and her legs crossed, "What's up with you? Weren't you all dandy not too long ago?" Thalia stopped sharpening a piece of wood for a second to look at her mistress, whom shook her head, "What're you trying to say?" Artemis asked threateningly. Thalia, who got scared, shrugged and went back to her sharpening.

About half an hour later, they reached camp- Percy with a few rabbits tied to his waist, and a large deer over his shoulders.

They're eating good tonight.

Together with Percy's cooking and the portion sizes, they _were_ eating good.

A few hunters helped Percy cook some rabbit stew, and make nice crispy strips of deer, seasoning with some flowers and ingredients. Although it was hard to get the meal done- Artemis kept on walking in to check on the food, claiming she was hungry- they had the table, fire, and food ready by dinner. Percy, wanting to cheer up the hunt a little, even summoned a table next to the fire for later, hoping they'll be able to tell stories while eating nice s'mores.

Artemis sat next to Percy, with pleading eyes she said two words, "Pineapples, _please_." Percy looked over from his gaze at the marshmallow on his stick and stared at Artemis, "Huh?" she rolled her eyes, "Can you please get me some fresh pineapple?" she asked again. Percy handed his stick to the hunter next to him, who stuffed the marshmallow between two pieces of chocolate and graham crackers, "They're out of season. Where do you think, I can find some now?" Percy asked. He seemed a little irritated with Artemis's change in diet. Artemis shrugged her shoulders, so Percy- deciding it was best to have a happy wife than a sad or angry wife- got up, teleported himself halfway across the country to New York City, threatened to pulverize the poor, but stubborn, security guard, marched his way to the throne room, and…

…fell to his knees in desperation in front of Demeter, desperate to get Artemis's pleading voice out of his head. "Aunt Demeter. Great, great Aunt Demeter, may I _please_ get a basket full of fresh pine-" Demeter chuckled, having heard his plea before; she may be the only one to catch on. "Here you go nephew. Some freshly picked and cut pineapples for your queen. The best of the best. Tell her I send my best wishes." Demeter smiled as a basket of said fruit was materialized in Percy's hand.

He raised a curious eyebrow, but said nothing.

Percy rises from his kneel, sighed through his nose, and teleported himself back to the Huntresses' camp. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!" Artemis cupped his face with both hands and kissed him all over, before grabbing the basket of juicy fruit and taking a bite out of a piece. Thalia and Phoebe just observed and talked to each other. Amy handed poor Percy her s'more, whom gladly took it and stuffed it into his mouth.

He groaned as his side began to burn.

He tried his best to hide his pain, and quickly ran away to the nearest river.

There, he removed all his clothing, save his black pants, and ran into the river, hoping that the contact would relieve the pain from his burning side. He willed his body and clothes to get wet,

But that didn't work either.

Panicking, he tried to cover the golden glow coming, and started to kick at nothing. Not even half a second later, he pulled his hands away from his side, a small scream escaping past the barrier of his lips.

" _Hahahahahahaha, I told you, didn't I? Once a prisoner of time;_ always _a prisoner of time._ You _may have escaped Tartarus, but Tartarus hasn't escaped you. Rise! Let the power take control, and rise! Let your inner demon loose. Rise, son of Tartarus!"_ A raspy, yet familiar, voice rang through Percy's ears.

Soon, Percy's neck snapped upward, his eyes glowing bright red. He grew larger, and larger, cultural tattoos spread from his back, to his chest, and swirled around his red, glowing eyes. He let loose a large, pained, roar.

 **With the Hunters:**

 _ROAR!_ The Hunters and Artemis stood, bows ready. Thalia scanned her surroundings, "Guys, where's Percy?" she asked/yelled. She shook her head, "Okay, Phoebe, Brianna, you guys are with me. Artemis, Amy and Kaitlyn, you guys head East. Dianna, Katherine and Whitney, go North. Aly, Elizabeth and Katarina, go West. Jane and Sarah, you guys protect the campsite. Two wolves; Northeast. Two wolves, Northwest. Two wolves head Southwest, and finally two wolves go Southeast. Everyone takes their wolf with them, understood?" Thalia began to take order as Lieutenant, her sisters nodded their heads, "Good. We meet back here in one hour, if you find game, Do. Not. Engage. Send one of your wolves to spread word, and we'll regroup back to your location. No one, travels more than 5 klicks, understand? Gear up, and move out!" Thalia finished strapping her throwing and hunting knives to her belt, and restocked her quiver with arrows, before sending everyone to take their, and release the, wolves.

Everyone moved to their respected areas alongside their wolves.

Thalia, Phoebe and Brianna decided it was time to take a small break, so naturally; they stopped at the first sight of water. Their source: a river.

Thalia looked up from bathing her warm face with the cool water, and saw the silhouette of a human laying on the ground of the other side of the river. "What the…" she whispered to herself, squinting her eyes to get a better look. She took hold of her bow, which was on the ground at the time, and started to cross the river, whistling to signal her wolf and fellow hunters to follow behind. Together, three wolves and three huntresses crossed the river silently.

The wolves reached the body first, and they seemed to recognize the person because they started whimpering and howling for the others to hear; a sign that one of their own was fatally wounded.

Thalia ran, ignoring the dragging marks coming from the river, to the person in question. They reached a man with only ripped, black, shorts on, and many scars on his back, neck, and legs. At least, that's all they could see at the moment. Thalia reached out to turn the man over, but retracted her hand when the man mumbled, "Not…helping…you…" Thalia looked at Phoebe, who handed her a stick. She used that, instead of her hand, to flip the man over. She stood, gasped, and dropped the stick as she recognized the bloody arms, chest, back, legs, and face…

Of Perseus Jackson.

"You get his left, I'll get his right. Asími! Tell the rest of what we've found. Brianna, you stay ahead a little to warn us of anything. One, two, three, lift!" Thalia and Phoebe both hauled Percy up, wrapping an arm over their shoulders. The movement caused a groan to fall past Percy's lips. Together, they stumbled back to their campsite.

 **Artemis's POV:**

" _Milady, our lieutenant has found your mate. She claims that they are carrying him back as we speak. Asími says he looks wounded."_ My wolf informed me. "Thanks, Fengári, spread word." I rubbed my wolf's forehead. She nodded her head and howled, her white fur flowing with the wind.

Percy, what have you gotten yourself into this time?

I watched as Thalia and Phoebe stumbled into our camp, their uniforms drenched in blood. In between the two, was my sleeping husband of almost two years, caked in blood. I ran forward as they almost dropped him, "What happened?" I asked, Thalia shook her head and set Percy down on an infirmary bed, "I-I. I don't know. We stopped near a river, and found him on the other side, mumbling incoherent words. We only understood three out of the hundred. Something…something about not helping someone. I don't know. But we searched his body for wounds, and found none. But this blood is definitely his." Four Hunters carried him to the infirmary tent, and started spoon feeding him ambrosia. Some placed wet towels on him, others washed the blood off with cloths. What happened to him?

 **Ten hours later: Third Person:**

Percy's eyes snapped open as he inhaled sharply, and sat up straight. His eyes, back to their normal sea green. He looked around to take in his surroundings, before seeming to realize that he was shirtless; meaning that his right side was out in the open. He quickly reached around, his arms flipping a bunch of metal trays, and found his cloak, which he put on and buttoned up. The sound of metal clattering woke Artemis up from her light slumber, causing her to want to investigate what was going on. Percy tried to get off the bed, wincing at the sound of his poor stiff back and neck cracking as he moved around.

Artemis got off her bed, put on her Hunter's garb, grabbed her bow, notched an arrow, and started to walk out of her tent.

Percy walked around, touching a few things here and there, trying to remember how he got to wherever it is he's in. All he could remember was eating a s'more, and feeling a numbing pain on his right side. Maybe he's in the Hunt's infirmary? Yeah, probably. That would explain the herbs and bloody cloths. He tried remembering, he tried and tried, and what he got in response, was very painful. He held his head in pain, his face turning red, and fell to his knees. Images zoomed through his mind, memories of what happened the night before, flashing before his eyes. He saw many things; scratching at his own skin with dark, black nails, his red glowing eyes scaring away any animals that dare come his way, tattoos, burning themselves into his skin. Only one word was running through his mind: kill. Percy saw a sketchy vision of himself dragging himself out of the river, but knocked out before he could pull his feet out of the water. The pain would have continued, if not for the hand that touched his shoulder and the silky-smooth voice that rang like church bells into his ears, "Percy?" the pain stopped, and he retracted his hands from the sides of his head, slowly, as the images left his mind. Panting, he turned around to find his wife, staring at him.

He stood up and hugged her, a hug that would make Tyson jealous. "What happened?" they both asked at the same time. Oh, boy, Percy thought, they both have some serious explaining to do.

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 **Hope you guys thought the beginning was funny! I want to know if you guys think I should work on my humor/ add more humor, reviews are very helpful! =)**


	4. The Beginning, of the End

**Percy's POV:**

"What do you mean what happened? Percy, you've been asleep _all day_. Are you telling me you don't know what caused it?" Artemis questioned and informed me at the same time. She tried to keep her voice low so the Huntresses don't hear, so I did the same, "I-I don't know. I just remember getting some pineapples, waking off to the river to wash up, and _boom_ , everything was black." I half-lied. She seemed stumped, her shoulders slumped and the hold on her bow weakened, she frowned and looked at me, I broke her out of her meditations, "What happened while I was, er, out?" Artemis shook her head as if she had some seaweed tickling her hair, and smiled as big as a crest moon shaped banana, she tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her ear, led me back to our tent, where she then explained to me about Thalia, Phoebe, Brianna, and their wolves finding me, bringing me back here, where they later on just let me sleep off anything I was fighting.

Artemis and I went to sleep.

The next day, we traveled, ran, walked, we did everything, and then, we found it.

The nest was hidden under layers of thick trees, a wall of leaves had hidden it from our view, we set Camp a few miles away, and decided that since it's day, the monsters are weakest so we planned our attack. We split into four large groups, one group for the back, another for the front, another for the left, and another for the right. A fifth group stayed behind and will come if we ask for back up. Artemis took charge of the back, and I told her she will be the last to engage, Thalia took the group for the right, she will be the third to engage. Phoebe took the group for the right, she will also be third to engage. The group I took is for the front, although my group will be the second to engage. I'll be charging first.

We snuck up as close as we can get, before I broke off, I took out the first and second line of defense, before a cyclops fell into the ground _before_ turning to golden dust, meaning every monster in the nest and site, was now aware of the commotion. I broke off from the Huntresses a few miles before the nest, so I doubt they can hear the battle cries. They were waiting for the signal; just like I told them. _Oh well,_ I thought, _I wanted a fight, here it comes._

Five growling monsters surrounded me, it reminded me of that one time I refused to give my homework to the class bully and him and his friends had surrounded me and didn't let me out of their beating circle until I gave them my homework, the joke was on them, they weren't able to understand my hand writing, I got ADHD and Dyslexia remember?

I smiled a lopsided smile, and swung my sword skillfully, "Thanks for the fun boys," they all looked angry, but confused at the same time, and took a step forward, _exactly what I wanted._ To bring them even closer, I bashed one in the head using my shield, turned around and slashed at a Cyclopes knee. I did a 360, and ended up cutting all five monsters in half. That's, two defense lines plus five monsters- Rhea knows how many left to go.

I set myself on fire and caused havoc. Hours and hours of fighting really tired me down, and I had forgotten about signaling for the Huntresses to charge. I guess now is the time. In mid jump, I transformed into a 6 foot, black, strong wolf and snapped the neck of one of the weak monsters. I howled into the now night, and ran to kill other monsters with my sharp teeth. Volleys of thousands upon thousands of arrows on fire rained, not a single one missed its target. We were in the middle of a full-out-battle. Spears were thrown at me, clubs were swung down, eyes were pierced, monsters were set afire, everything happened so fast, even as the god of time I wasn't able to see what would happen next. A cyclops jumped on top of me as I had reached the center of the nest, and started pounding my forehead. Another, Dracanae stabbed me in the side with her spear, monsters piled on top of me, and soon, you weren't able to see even a speck of my black fur. I willed the Earth to form a hand, and crush the monsters on me, but with such little practice with my powers, I was wasted by the time I was able to get out from under the monster pile. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the start of a new war.

Why? Because when I got up, and reached the middle of the nest, I SAW FREAKIN' WAR PLANS! Gods damnit, how could I _not_ know?! Kronos had said himself, Tartarus always claims what is his! I am such an idiot! I should have never allowed myself to get out of that hell hole!

 _Hahaha-a-a, I told you, grandson, Tartarus will always be with you. This is just the beginning young God-ling. Just you wait and see. . ._

My rage caused a storm to form up above. Lightning struck, almost every other monster that wasn't already killed, and burned the battle field. I grabbed the plans and hid them in my cloak, before limping/running back to my wife, back to the person I am to protect, back to the person I love.

"Percy are you okay?" Artemis asked me once I was able to regroup with the Hunt. I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and sat down on the ground, not minding the rain that I was letting soak me, this can't be. After all this, I've been through two wars! Can't a guy catch a break? I don't know what to do. I just _can't_ afford to lose this time. Artemis would be left alone, my _family_ will no longer have a cousin, brother, **(Thalia, and Apollo)** father, son, friend, all these people that count on me, if I were still alone, I'd be able to waltz right in and kill myself to kill our new found enemy, but I can't. I ignored the pain in my side, and continued contemplating the new found information. Flashes of the plans, well, flashed through my mind. They were willing to do whatever they had to; to get to me.

I mentally slapped myself, _You dolt! Don't think like that! We need to get to the council first if any-_ "Percy. Apollo said he'd like to see you. Be safe." Artemis didn't like showing a lot of affection in public, so she just gave me a kiss on the check, and I found myself in Apollo's temple. "You know, don't you?" I asked him when I noticed his uneasy look. I didn't even bother to take in my surroundings, I went straight to the point, "Like I've told you before Percy, what I see, visions, are only one of billions upon billions of different possible outcomes. But now, it is inevitable, we are at war," I took a seat, "earlier today, a prophecy was given, through the Oracle, Rachel was with me, so only I know. Percy, you are yet again, the child of another great prophecy." I raised an eyebrow, and all the sudden, the plans in my pocket felt heavier than lead, and yet, lighter than helium, Apollo shook his head, "The Fates forbid me from telling you, but you are being sent on a quest. I know, you're a god now, but I guess there really _is_ a first for everything. You leave immediately, just walk out that door, receive your prophecy, grab an already pre-packed bag, and leave." I stood up, and walked into a new room. The room was very empty, as if it were brand new and yet still had to be furnished and painted, I saw Rachel. She smiled grimly at me, and opened her mouth and all the green mist crawled out of her, the Oracle was ready to reveal its presence…

 **PLEASE VOTE ON POLL IN MY PROFILE! Sorry for the tardiness! (And the unintentional cliffhanger) and I have no reason,** _ **but,**_ **like I said in my other story,** **Sorry this chapter came out late, but I went to the doctor the other day and I was told I'm "Over doing it" meaning, that if I continue typing this stuff on my phone, then transfer it to my laptop, the shaking of my hand is going to become permanent. And if my hand shakes, I cant text/type, and if I can't type, I can't do what makes me happy, and if I can't do what makes me happy, I can't make you guys happy! Don't worry, I won't stop, and I'll be okay. I'm just going to do one chapter per week, because remember, I have three stories to write for, not your fault. Anyways, when I'm down to one story, whichever that story may be, I'll update more frequently. Hope I see you guys next week! This is Hero of Olympus in disguise, hoping you have or had, a good day. I would like to thank Average Canadian for making my day extra special!**


	5. An Unrequited Love

**PLEASE VOTE ON POLL IN MY PROFILE!**

* * *

 **Third Person:**

Percy paled as he listened to his given prophecy. He knew he had bad luck, but seriously? This, this is worse that just plain "bad". He has the worst luck in the world. No, that's the understatement of the supereon, he has the worst luck in _all_ of the universes **(Multiverse theory, it's real, look it up)** so, according to the prophecy, he has to head south. _Oh,_ the irony. **(You know that old saying, when things head south? Yeah, that's the irony)** Things are supposed to go bad, and he's heading south. And he can't even say bye to his family.

A blue back pack, that he guessed was enchanted to weigh as light as a feather, appeared on his back, with little slits in the straps to allow his strong, stronger-than-diamond+steel-Chaos Silver wings. "Rachel?" Percy asked, said girl nodded, "Tell them I tried, and I love them," he requested from her. Rachel nodded, but started wondering what Percy's prophecy is. Percy smiled and gave her a brotherly kiss on the forehead, "Tell Wise Girl to watch my children while I am gone. Bye." And he walked off.

At first, he flew for miles and miles, not eating or sleeping, but his wings got tired, so he turned into a wolf and ran, but even as a new god at full strength, he got tired. Somewhere in Florida, 18 hours away from New York, Percy changed back to his teenage **(eighteen I know I know, not of legal drinking age, but for the story's sake act like it is please.)** human form, clothes disheveled along with his hair and appearance in general, he stopped in a small bar.

It was a modest bar, one or two pool tables, an L shaped counter, and a few small round tables here and there. The music wasn't crazy, in the contrary the volume was soft. Overall it seemed like a place where a man can have a beer in peace. He sat on one of the stools, and waited for a bartender. A nineteen year old woman with light blond hair, blue soft eyes, and a _very_ Aphrodite-like skimpy outfit, approached Percy, applying an extra swing to her hips. Her lips were full and plump, her skin had no wrinkles whatsoever. She seemed like a woman that always received extra big tips. Percy looked down, self-consciously, at his clothing: worn out jeans, black boots, and a white tee. He should've changed before leaving for this quest. He now regrets his decision of being lazy.

With a seductive voice, she smiled a seductive smile, and seductively leaned over the counter. **(she's seductive yeah, we get the point! Move on already.)** "What can I get you?" She asked. Percy, oblivious as always, smiled a face splitting, lopsided, smile at the young bartender, and asked for a Jack Daniel's. She came back with a nice tall glass of the desired Daniel's, and told him that for a pretty boy like himself, it was on the house. Percy seemed taken aback by this, but nonetheless took a long swig of his drink. He wasn't much of a drinker before his and Annabeth's break up, but drinking, he thought, is like an old habit; it dies hard.

•••

"What do you think your wife would say if she saw you like this?" Percy didn't bother to look up from his gaze that was fixed on his half empty glass, thinking it was the bartender who asked, he smirked and took another swig before answering "She'd probably kill me right on the spot. She's not much of a drinker," he nearly did a spit take when he looked to the person that asked the question. Next to him: a girl with a forest green flannel, black high top Converse, blond hair, and a green cap that covered most of her face. "Annabeth?" Percy would recognize those princess curls anywhere, he would recognize those pink lips of hers, her features, and certainty the way she talks. She looked up and smiled at him, "Rachel gave me your message. I sort of figured you were in trouble, so, asking Chiron for a quest, I followed you, and who would've thought, I would have ended up here, in a bar located in Florida. Blackjack is outside, by the way. Along with Porkpie. So, why are you here? Your wife certainly misses you," she added the last part when she saw the bartender come back and attempt to flirt with Percy. The blue-eyed girl immediately backed off, and went to serve another person, a regular. Percy got up to hug his best friend.

"You do not believe how much I've missed you! How are the kids? Last time I saw them, they were running around camp with Apollo and Hermes!" Annabeth smiled and hugged Percy back. Percy's smiled got even brighter, "they're good! Although, they miss seeing their godmother/aunt. I mean, I think Thalia's got a soft spot for them. You should see what happens to any boy within a three-mile radius of poor Sally," Percy winced, remembering what had happened to an unlucky boy. Poor boy may grow up to never have kids.

"You know, I'm sort of wondering who else is coming with us," Annabeth told him. They were walking out of the bar.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, on all of our quests, there was always three of us. You, Grover and I on a few of them, you Zoë and Bianca and Thalia another, let's see, another with you, Tyson, Grover and I, you, Frank-"

"Okay, okay I get it! We should be expecting another quest-er or something." Annabeth nodded. Percy stopped.

"Oh," he groaned, "you have got to be kidding me!"

Annabeth looked around to find a few monsters in the dark, waiting to pounce on them at any given chance. She pulled out her dagger as Percy pulled out Riptide. They stood, back to back, Percy smirked. "Just like old times Wise Girl, eh?" To lighten the mood he added a very horrible western accent to the statement.

There were very few monsters, but Annabeth couldn't help but notice how Percy would try his best to not wound the monster, and give it a very deadly blow instead, although, with his last monster, he accidentally missed and gave a very sharp blow to the monster's right shoulder. When he was done with his share of the nasties, he turned around, and held his shoulder as he limped to where Annabeth had the Pegasi **(spelling?)** wait. Strange, she thought, she didn't see him get touched not even once by anything but herself, when she had grabbed his wrist to hoist him up from the ground. She looked through Percy's white tee, and saw a gold glow on his side… she shook her head, must be some monster dust, she tried to convince herself.

•••••

Percy and Annabeth barely ran into any monsters, for one they were flying on their Pegasus, and two: none seemed to be following them. They felt grateful, but were uneasy the whole time.

"Blackjack? Buddy? I think it's time you head home. Annabeth and I can find a way to and from the south." Percy suggested after he noticed how the flapping of the Pegasus's wings were getting louder and irregular. Blackjack shook his head, but landed in a clearing of a forest. Night was setting, and pretty soon, Percy would have the pleasure of watching his wife ride across the sky in her Moon Chariot.

Once they were down, Percy and Annabeth reached into their backpacks and took out some sleeping bags, and one small, personal tent. They figured to only put one tent up as they would be taking shifts throughout the night, thus there would be no need of placing extra things; it would only slow them down in the morning. Percy used his control of fire, and set up a nice, cozy, campfire in front of him and Annabeth, they both sat on a log, warming up their hands. Annabeth watched as Percy looked up at the sky, smiling at the stars. "You really lover her- Artemis I mean- don't you?" Annabeth inquired. Percy just smiled even wider and nodded his head in response, before turning to her:

"You? Who do you love?" Percy asked, she said nothing.

Annabeth knew who she loved-or loves- but felt it would be very unfitting if she told him, after all, she's been in love with the same boy since she was twelve. She never stopped loving him, something the boy she wished was her lover, would never know until his, or her own death.

•••••

"Apollo," she growled, "where is he? Where'd you send him off to this time? Alaska?" Apollo shrunk in his seat, feeling like an ant about to be murdered mercilessly by a giant foot- the foot being his very hormonal and upset sister. "Artemis, even _I_ can't tell you that sort of information. The Fates forbid it. T-trust me. If I could, I would have told you two _hours_ ago," Artemis scoffed. "Since when were you one to follow rules?"

Artemis would have continued her questioning, if not for the fact that her children started grumbling about _being here for_ hours, and for being absolutely hungry. With an inhuman growl, Artemis spun on her heals, her hair twirling around with her body, and walked out.

Artemis tucked her children in bed, before waking over to her chariot, taking the reins and thinking of her children and husband.

•••••

Annabeth layed sound asleep, at least- Percy thought she was. They decided that Percy would take first watch, especially because he _needed_ to feel her presence- her being Artemis. He wished he was back at home, laying in bed, Artemis in his arms, her bare back pressed to his-

"Looking for someone?" he jumped and turned to see Annabeth awake. Great, he thought, she saw right through me. He frowned, "Annabeth? Have you ever, well, loved-or love- someone, but right when everything seems just right and perfect- but then, the fates decide to rip it as far away as possible from you?" Annabeth sat down next to him, and in a friendly gesture (although she deep down, wished it was more than friendly) rested her head on his shoulder. "Percy, although that didn't _exactly_ happen to me in the way it's happening to you now, I know what you're talking about. I love the person, but he isn't aware of it. I screwed up too many times for him to ever forgive me, and now I pay the price- an unrequited love.

"I wish, very, very much, that I didn't do what I did to him; but I did. I pushed him away faster than _I_ could say 'wait don't go.' He fell in love, got married, and even though he _says_ he forgave me, I know he didn't, because, I still haven't.

"Overall, with my experience, I can't really tell you what to do- because I myself have failed in that department. All I have to say- from my experience is something that is totally irrelevant to your situation, is- in the end, there is nothing you can do about someone who doesn't love you back- except, loving him.

"But, what I _can_ tell you is this: you love her, she loves you. Love, love isn't something that'll go away in one day, a week, a month or a year. Love will-will push right through all those hard and rough times, just as easy as it'll push through those happy times," Annabeth smiled and relaxed at Percy's side. He smiled and started to run his fingers through her blond curls, "Thanks Wise Girl. I really needed that."

"No problem," she smiled. She wished that this- the way he was running his hands through her hair, letting her lean on him- was under different circumstances. She wished, that things between them were different. She wished he knew what she was wishing for. She wished, he loved her back.

 **REVIEWS WELCOME! They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside =) anybody else wonder how other authors get so many reviews? Like, earlier I was reading a story, and it had over 200 reviews! I understand if you don't want to though... I—well, never mind. What do you think of the story so far? Horrible? Terrible? Eh? Bad? Good? Fantastic? Addicting? No? Anything? Hope you guys have a good day, and remember, smile!**


	6. Time

PLEASE VOTE ON POLL IN MY PROFILE!

"Well," Percy sat up and dusted off his jeans, smiling. "I think it's time for bed, Wise Girl. This time for real. Come on, I'll take first watch," he grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her to her feet.

Annabeth bit her bottom lip and nodded her head before walking into the small tent.

His smile slowly faded as he sat back down on the log. "What am I getting myself into _. . ._?"

 **With Artemis:**

"I must congratulate you," said Hebe. Her and Artemis had decided to take a walk on Olympus to help Artemis relax, even if it was just for a little. "Why?"

"Well, Perseus, let's admit, is a very attractive male. He even had Aphrodite running after him at twelve. I'm just saying how I admire that you married him. He is a god and _. . ._ Well, demigods are a must for our survival, aren't they? He himself, is a product of Poseidon's unfaithfulness. I don't mean to—"

"No. No offense was taken. Though, I'd very much appreciate it if we did not talk of my husband. After all, he has gone missing and my brother is the only one who knows where he is."

Hebe raised an eyebrow, "Why not ask Hermes? I'm sure he can help."

Artemis stopped in her tracks, "I suppose . . . I will get right on that. Thank you. I needed this." And she walked away.

Artemis Jackson was going to find her husband, with, or without the help of her brother.

 **With Percy:**

"Morning Seaweed Brain." Annabeth yawned as she exited the tent. She found Percy where she left him—sitting by the fire.

She knew better than to get mad at him for not letting her take her watch, but that would just upset him. That's just the way he is. "Good morning Wise Girl," he greeted her. Annabeth couldn't stop herself from resting a hand on his shoulder, "What's wrong?" she frowned.

"Well, it's just that—never mind. Let's have breakfast, shall we?"

Annabeth nodded her head and sat down next to him. "I can't help but wonder what we have to do next. The prophecy didn't really, give us as much information as it usually gave us. It pretty much told me that—"

"Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"What exactly _is_ the prophecy?"

"Um _. . ._ It goes somewhat like this:

" _Tide, Owl, and Night,_

 _Come together for Light's fright._

 _They shall head South,_

 _To find Death's mouth,_

 _And find the end of Time._

 _Past's Curse, must one withstand,_

 _In order to restore our land."_

Annabeth sat, wide eyed at the fact of hearing the prophecy for the first time. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.

Percy shifted uncomfortably on his little log, and waited for her response. "Now, let's break this down. ' _Tide, Owl, and Night'_ well, my mother's symbol is the owl, one of your domains is tides, and now we just need to find who 'Night' is."

"' _Come together for Light's fright'_ that may mean—since Light is also one of my domains—that for the fear of the safety of my family, we are going on this quest."

"' _They shall head South'_ that is pretty obvious."

"' _To find Death's mouth,'_ that isn't. It could mean anything. So this one is really unclear, and has different meanings, but so does the next line."

"' _And find the end of Time,'_ that could mean the end to one of us. Or, maybe, somebody with the power of time or something like that…"

"' _Past's Curse, must one withstand,'_ maybe, someone may have to relive their life or something? I don't know, but then again, we're just guessing what the prophecy _may_ be trying to tell us."

This one's a head scratcher.

"' _In order to restore our land,'_ when was our land ever, _destroyed_? I have a feeling something bad may happen."

"Yeah, yeah me too."

Annabeth stared at Percy in a loving manner, trying to find how to make this god happy again. _Artemis,_ was her first thought, but then again, why wouldn't his wife make him happy? But no, she can't do that, she'll only make it worse for when they have to separate. Annabeth sat very close to him, and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry," she smiled at him, "we're _the_ team, remember? The perfect duo! Annabeth and Percy, together we're unbeatable! You have my back while I have yours. I strengthen your weaknesses as you do mine. Come on, cheer up. We'll get through this. We've never failed, no reason to start now." Percy looked up at his companion and smiled, she always knew how to cheer him up. "Thanks. Come on, let's go. After this, you're meeting your niece and nephew/God children. I'm afraid you and Artemis may be the only ones to put them in their place."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"What? Thalia and I spoil my kids to death. Not only them, I—" he was going to speak of his and Artemis's extra, er… _activities_ when Annabeth sat up straight. "Oh my gods, Percy, for the love of my poor innocent ears and brain, _do not_ finish that sentence. By the—no, nope. Forget it. Let's just pack up, and forget we ever had this conversation." Annabeth held a finger up before frantically packing up the tent and her bag. Percy chuckled lightly to himself, he enjoyed it when the childish side came out of them both. Once they were done packing up, they cleaned up their tracks and started heading south once again. "Percy?"

"Hmm?"

"Where exactly are we going? We can't explore _all_ of the south just for "Death's mouth," can we?" Percy chuckled.

"Annabeth, Annabeth. My dear Annabeth—"

"Ugh," she groaned, "if I wanted to go with Apollo, I would've done so a long time ago.

"Sorry. Anyways, _Death's mouth . . . Death's mouth . . ._ "

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Of course Seaweed Brain doesn't know, she thought. Percy, on the other hand, was too busy thinking of something he didn't tell Annabeth, something that he was too afraid to think of, but knew was right.

 _Find the end of Time,_ he thought. He couldn't help but think of the inevitable, of what the one line from the prophecy really meant.

 _Find Percy's end, because Percy, is currently the only being alive with the control with the one thing that is going to kill him._ Time.

 **Sorry this chapter is short, and late. This week has been super stressful, school is stressful and busy, and—ugh. To sum it all up: Life. Is. Super. Super. Stressful. So stressful, you just want to curl up on your bed and sleep and pray for everything to go away. Hey that rhymed! Haha. Anyways, please review, reviews keep me happy, and me being happy helps me make you guys happy with more. Have a nice weekend guys!**


	7. I Become A Percito

**Please, please, please, review. If I get 20 or more reviews for this chapter, then I'll definitely update sooner. Anyways, please, enjoy and review what you think of it so far. Also, please vote on the poll in my profile, will help a ton. The poll will end soon. Enjoy…**

Percy and Annabeth walked in silence, only taking small breaks every hour or so to stop and talk about where they are headed.

"What do you think?" Annabeth asked him. Percy stopped sharpening his knives and looked up at the daughter of wisdom, "I don't know. _Death's mouth,_ what—what if it means I have to go back, back down there?" Annabeth scooted over and hugged Percy, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him in for a very tight hug. "Percy, if you have to go back down there, then so will I. A man like you doesn't deserve to go through so much pain and suffering—much less go through it alone. If that's what it takes to complete this prophecy and get you back home to your kids, then that's what we'll do. Together. Got it? I'm not leaving you behind or vice-versa." Percy smiled at her attempt of cheering him up, and nodded his head.

They walked together until they came across a wide field, the leaves burned off of the trees, the bark of the trees black with cinder and charred. They slowed their pace, and became almost as silent as Artemis's Huntresses. Almost. Percy stepped on a dead branch, causing the sound of a loud snap to echo through the forest. They stared at each other, horrified of what is to come. They stood, back to back, and weapons at the ready. They listened as a monster approached them, they could tell it was a big one because of the continuous _Thud,Thud, Thud._

Percy nearly dropped his sword as he craned his neck up to look at the giant monster. Maybe, he should be more specific. Let's try that again—ahem, _Percy nearly dropped his sword as he craned his neck up to look at—_ a hydra. "Awe man," Percy whined, "do you know what happened the _last_ time I had to fight him? Hey, Jerky!"

"Percy!" Annabeth hissed.

"What?"

"Don't get the monster upset! He's here to kill us!"

"Oh, no actually, Jerky is a girl. And, I named her Jerky when I was, uh, _down there_. Hey Jerky! How's the pit?" The hydra, _'Jerky'_ , roared in agitation and spewed fire all over the place. "Um, Percy?"

"Yeah."

"What the Hades did you do this time?!"

"I may, or may not, have…uh, killed her hubby?"

"W–h–h—y?!" she whined, "Come on! Is there _one_ mythical creature you haven'tangered?"

"Yeah. Actually there is one—"

"Artemis doesn't count. And I'm more than 99.99% sure even she has been upset with you at times."

"I was _going_ to say—actually, I think you're right. Whoa!" _Jerky_ got tired of looking back and forth between the two immortals, and decided to nearly burn Percy into a nice, tasty, crispy, burnt, chip.

Percy—deciding he didn't want to be a Perc-ito, ducked and rolled over to the right, causing one of the heads (of the hydra) to overlap with the other. He swung at the head, and almost out of instinct, using his powers from being a champion of Hestia, he burned the stump, not letting it grow more heads.

 _Jerky_ roared in pain, the other heads snapping at Percy. "Boo–Hoo! Who cares? So what you've lost a head? I'll give you an easier, and free, way of getting back with Mr. Jerky!" Percy yelled as he jumped up high, and cut off another head. As he landed, knees bent, on the stump, he heated up his hand and burned the remaining stump. Annabeth started to get to work, and began slashing at the hydra's sides, causing the extremely long necks to get tangled. After some time, _Jerky_ was down to two heads, Percy and Annabeth need to do this right. As they stood, side by side, the looked at each other, and nodded. Three seconds later, they were fighting the monster once again. Percy threw five throwing knives at one of the heads. In a split second, the knives aligned themselves up the neck of the hydra, perfectly aligned, and each within a good two feet of each other. The hydra roared once again, determined to get its vengeance.

With its claw, _Jerky_ , swiped at Percy, causing five new cuts across his chest. He cried out in pain and fell to one knee. _Jerky,_ taking advantage of this, gave another swipe of her claw and sent Percy flying across the field, causing him to hit his spine and back against a tree. " _Percy!_ " Annabeth dropped her guard and began to run towards Percy. With ichor dripping from the top side of his left eyebrow, a cut from his lip, and pouring from the wound from _Jerky,_ Percy yelled for Annabeth to get out of the way. _Jerky_ was preparing to spit acid behind Annabeth's back. Percy, with excruciating pain, got on one knee, and with his steel wings, flew into the air and landed on top of Annabeth, shielding her with his wings, his back exposed. _Jerky_ spit acid onto Percy's back, and he screamed in pain. With all his might, with a sloppy swing, he cut off both heads, turning in a full circle. Before he finished his full circle, he set both stumps on fire, before doing his full 360 and falling onto his knees. The world began to drown in ink as his eyelids became heavy, and with a big thud,Percy fell to the ground.

Color slowly came back to the world, and with eyelids as heavy as iron, Percy struggled to open his eyes, and show his friends he is alive and well. He found that his eyes felt like they were sewn shut, so he let them be.

He heard voices, whispering about somewhere far away from him in the room.

"What happened…"

"—as a god he should be—" the voices got clearer and clearer as time passed by.

"I know. And now I feel bad…"

"There's nothing you could've done. He is, after all, the first and last to ever hold the power of Chaos. You're just lucky Artemis can't kill maidens."

"Yeah, I know. What should we do? I'm sure she wasn't supposed to find out about this quest."

"Well, I doubt we can keep the fact that her _husband_ almost died. We'll have to let her in. She may be our only hope."

"It's been three days. When will he wake up?"

"Any day now. Any day…"

And the world drifted into an infinite sea, far away from Percy's reach.

The next time Percy became conscious, he felt one of his hands extremely warm, but it felt like he was at home. "…poison should've killed him."

"When will he wake up?"

"You need to understand that, when he wakes up, he's going to have to continue his quest. Even though he is a god, we are already stretching the limits as far as they can go. We can no longer interfere."

"Why?"

"Artemis—"

"No! No, I'm not going to let you take him away from me like that ever again."

"We have no choice. We—"

" _Artemis."_

Percy involuntarily coughed, sending his body into a wave of shudders. He sat up straight, and took in a sharp breath. The warmth on his hand became colder, as he noticed this was because Artemis had let go of his hand.

His eyes flew open, and he found himself in a familiar tent. The Hunt's infirmary.

"Percy!" Artemis threw her arms around him. Percy, wincing, slowly wrapped his arms around her, his head in her shoulder. "You have no idea how much I've missed you," they told each other at the same time. With both hands, Artemis cupped Percy's face. She kissed him all over his bruised and bloody face. Percy conjured up a glass of water and drank some, before pouring it on his face, cleaning and healing his wounds.


	8. One Could Argue

_SLAP!_

"Owies," Percy gingerly placed a hand over the red one on his cheek. "What was that for?"

"For leaving without an explanation. Hmph. What do you think you were doing?! You could've gotten yourself killed out there! And don't you dare say you got lost because you and I both know you can easily teleport back home. Explain," she sat down next to him angrily.

He didn't even flinch. Instead, he marveled at her as if she were the most beautiful thing to ever walk in the universe. Which, in his case, she is. "What?" She raised an eyebrow. He shrugged, "Nothing. I just like it when you demand for things from me," she flushed and lost her composure. "W-w-what?" He smiled. "I said I like it when you demand me to do things. Or when you demand something of me," he repeated slowly.

"I heard you the first time! What I meant was—ah whatever. Start explaining yourself, or you're sleeping on the floor for the next decade."

"Fine. Fine. Long story short, I received a prophecy; Annabeth ended up receiving a quest too; a hydra found us; I was knocked out. Word of advice? Don't tell Rachel you're leaving town for a bit."

"Wow. Only you can make a few days' worth of events sound like they happened in seconds."

"Yeah well, I've been told I have the knack to do things like that. So tell me," he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her lower back, "what have you been up to?" As their lips connected, Artemis couldn't help but think. She couldn't help but think how he could make her do whatever he wanted her to do with just that smile.

As she slowly pushed him down onto their bed (she flashed them to their bedroom) she couldn't help but think that sometimes, you don't need to find something worth living for. You have to find something worth dying for. As she started to unbutton that damn shirt of his, she wondered.

She wondered: if I was given the chance for a do-over, would I change? Would I do everything the same? And she smiled. She smiled against his lips, she smiled against his ear. Against his neck. Collarbone. Chest. She smiled. Because, the question was a no-brainer.

If she was given the chance to do a do-over, she wouldn't take it. She wouldn't take it because everything she never knew she wanted— _needed_ —was right here, right now. Everything she has ever asked for and didn't, was one with her.

As they made love that night—no not some crazy, no-feelings-attached sexual intercourse— _love._ As they made love, she was happy. And she couldn't help but _know_ that as along as the love of her infinite life was happy, she would be happy. She didn't care if he were with someone else, as long as he was happy. Some may say that _rewards_ and _attention_ and _a lover_ would make you happy, but the truth is: there's no way for you to be happy if those around you aren't. If she ever saw Percy frowning, sad, despaired, she'd probably—no, she _will_ feel as if she has failed her purpose in life.

If Percy were ever unhappy, she'd feel like a failure because then she would be one. Everyone has a purpose in life. The Fates don't waste their precious time to weave a string of yarn that won't benefit them at all. They wouldn't waste their limited amount of yarn only to throw it in the garbage. No, they wouldn't. She believes that everyone was born for a reason. Some may take a lifetime to find theirs, but there is one. Artemis only took a few millennia to realize what her reason is. Who her reason is. Some may say—as he has said many times—that she saved him. Some say that when he was nothing but a shell of a broken man, when his heart was broken into unfixable shards, that she saved him when she took him in.

Some would say that she was the glue that carefully put his heart together, and with her love she filled in the small cracks and missing pieces. But Artemis isn't _Some People_. Artemis is Artemis, and she believed the he saved her. He saved her. Not only from the Titans, or the Giants, but from life in general. You don't really know what it feels like to be lonely until you've been the opposite. You can't feel lonely until you've actually had a companion. He saved her. He saved her from many things. Many things.

He saved her from despair.

He saved her from the misguided belief that all men are bad. Pigs.

He saved her from being alone.

He saved her from the black hole she felt herself being swallowed into.

He caught her, and pulled her up just as she let go of the edge and began free falling.

He saved her.

He saved her, and that is something she will be forever grateful for. That was what was on her mind as she leaned down to kiss him. That is what she thought, and that is what she voiced. "You saved me," she said. "You saved me…" and she repeated it until she let the love in the heated room envelop her.

Suddenly, there was no pain in Percy's side. There was no memory of Tartarus. No limited amount of time. There was no hate. There was nothing in this world except for Percy and Artemis. Artemis and Percy. And their love for each other. Suddenly, every pain he ever felt in the world, was numb.

* * *

"I have to leave the house more often if this is how I'll be payed when I get back," Percy smiled at Artemis. His hand gently gripped her bare shoulder, as with one hand she held the thin sheet to her chest, and her other laid on his exposed chest. "Don't you dare think about it mister. You do not want to know the trouble I went through. When must you leave?"

Percy frowned: "I…uh, well I don't know. Hm, guess I should've thought of that before I fought that hydra. Where's Annabeth?"

"She talking to Apollo about the prophecy. There's really no one else she can talk to about it. Poor girl, probably being tortured."

"Doubt it."

"Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure Apollo has the children. And if Apollo has the children…" Artemis pushed herself up, and smiled at him as she swung herself over him. "What?"

"Actually, never mind. If they're with him, then we have the whole day to ourselves," and he smiled that mischievous smile of his. Artemis leaned down, their noses touching, "Thought so," she gave him a lopsided grin. And she went for the kill.

* * *

"Seaweed Brain! Artemis!"

"Mommy! Daddy!"

"Little Sis'! Bro!"

"Milady! Kelp Head!"

And together, Apollo, Sally, Thalia, Annabeth, and Jake yelled at the same time: "WE'RE HO-O-OME!" They all laughed as they set down a few things on the kitchen counter. "Be down in a sec!" They heard the frantic voices of Percy and Artemis. Thalia raised an eyebrow as she heard a few thuds and curses in Ancient Greek, "Uh, is everyone decent?!" She covered the ears of the children.

"Thalia!"

"Just curious!"

They didn't even hear them running down the stairs, but apparently by the time they were down, they were painting and sweaty, and smelt funny. Thalia tucked her hands in her pockets, "Well, one could argue you two were doing the naughty." She wagged her finger in their flushed faces. Probably both for different reasons. "Thals," Percy growled through gritted teeth. Thalia raised her arms in the universal sign of surrender, "Okay, okay," she backed off, "no more, _naughty_ jokes. Got it," she smirked. Percy's hold on the waist of his wife tightened a little. She just smiled at Thalia and leaned back into his sturdy chest.

No one noticed Annabeth flinch.

"So, boys and girls, why don't you go off to your room and play with the new toys we got you?"

"We?" Percy raised an eyebrow at Annabeth. "You're right. They're too cute to deny. But don't worry, I didn't go too far. You should've seen the cart when I went to the Restroom. Never trust Thalia and Apollo to go shopping for your children. Brrr," she shivered at the end, remembering the sight they had beheld. When she got back from the "Laboratories" she found Apollo and Thalia smiling sheepishly at her with a mountain of toys 'hidden' (more like in the spot-light) behind them. "Well, I'm glad you were there. This palace may be enchanted to continue expanding, but I think they still have too much stuff. Thanks, anyways," he clapped his hands together, and faced Annabeth, "when are we leaving for the quest?" She shrugged. "I think the sooner the better. But this time we leave prepared."

As they talked, Artemis tried her best to not say anything. She didn't feel well and didn't want her breakfast to go into the toilet.


	9. Run

"And then there were two," Percy muttered as he shouldered his back-pack and continued on the trail he and Annabeth were walking on.

He and Annabeth left his home two hours ago, and barely traveled two miles without talking. Of course, he broke the silence. "Percy! Can you go two minutes without humming or talking or singing or anything? Just stay _quiet._ "

"Gee, what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. Just, never mind. Forget I said anything." Percy shrugged. "Alright. _It ain't no life like you're on the run!_ " Annabeth closed her hand into a fist and controlled her breathing. _"If you're gonna let me down, let me down gently! Don't pretend, that you don't want me. Our love ain't water under the bridge!"_ Percy sang aloud. Annabeth almost laughed sadistically. Funny, she thought, I can relate. _"Say that our love ain't water under the bridge,"_ Annabeth felt like hugging him and telling him that very line. Our love ain't water under the bridge, she felt like saying. _Her_ love wasn't under the bridge. _His_ was. Well, his love for her, that is. Gotta hand it to Adele to tug at Annabeth's heart.

"Alright, singing lesson is over. Now, where are we going?" Percy stopped in his tracks, "I thought you knew? Anyways, in Tartarus I found this 'hole'. It's a one way thing, you get in and find another way out. That's where we're going. It's fine if—"

"No, no. I'm fine. But um, how do you plan on getting out?" She hated not knowing but Percy was really their only "Tartarus expert."

"I plan on getting out by—"

" _I_?"

"Annabeth, there's no way I can let you—"

"No, you listen to me, _buddy_ ," she stopped and jabbed a finger to his chest firmly. "I am going there with you and that's that. I don't want to hear any buts, or no's or anything. Got it?" Percy stiffly nodded.

"Now, how much farther?"

"Oh. Um, hehe," he rubbed the back of his neck. "We're already here." He whistled three times, loud and clear, and stood there. He pulled out Riptide, and prepared to fight.

Four dracanae, and a cyclops marched forward, as if they had been waiting all day. _Annabeth,_ he spoke to her in her mind. _In two minutes, they're going to engage. I want you to run as fast as you can towards New York. Do not, turn, back. Run. Run as fast you can. Once you reach Olympus, I want you to go straight into my room and look under my bed. There should be a loose floorboard. Pull it apart, and there should be a tracker. The tracker will lead you back to me. Just mix in a little of your and Artemis's blood and it should activate. Do. Not. Engage. Do not look for me until midnight of tomorrow, by then I shall be in Kronos's palace in Tartarus. I want you to prepare everyone for war._ Annabeth stood wide eyed at his last statement.

He stepped forward and skillfully played with his sword.

"So, I'm guessing Kronos sent you? Grandpa never did like it when I ran away." A dracanae stepped forward. "You must come with us, son of Tartarus. She shall be spared if you surrender," she tried to negotiate. Annabeth seemed like she was ready to fight. Percy shook his head.

" _Run."_ And she sprinted, back toward Olympus. Percy turned around and swung his sword in a wide arc, splitting the dracanae **(please leave a review if you know the correct spelling)** in half. The other three dracanae lunged at him as he summoned his shield and knelt down. Percy raised his shield above his head and grunted as they crashed onto him. _Why do they have to be so heavy?_ Di immortales _, why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, that's right, because if not the world will end._

 _I didn't sign up for this._

With a battle cry, Percy pushed his shield up, causing the monsters that piled onto him to lose their balance for just a split second. That's all he needed.

 **Percy's POV:**

I cut one in half and turned around just in time to block a spear. Using a disarming technique, I made the spear fly out of her hands and knock into a tree. I cut her legs from under her. The third one tried to stab at me, but automatically my left hand came up and grabbed her wrist, the other pushed the spear out of her hand. Pulling on her wrist, I pulled her into me, her back to my chest, my arm around her neck. I twisted her neck with a sickening snap, and decapitated her.

The cyclops was able to hit me in the head, probably causing a head concussion. I did not give up. I went to cut him in half by the waist, but instead he whistled and blocked. I tried to slash at his knee, but a claw came out of nowhere and clawed at my chest. I was being overpowered by a cyclops and gods know how many hellhounds. I turned and cut it's paw off, making it whine. I almost stopped to check if it was Ms. O'Leary.

The cyclops, seeing my hesitation, swiped at my knee, making me kneel in front of the hellhound. One by one the monsters piled onto my shoulders, I almost expected to see a new streak of gray when I get out from under this. I was hit in the temple, and went limp.

 **Third Person:**

Annabeth ran as fast as she can, and when she heard a war cry, she ran faster. She prayed for her mother to help her reach Olympus in time, and to her astonishment, Athena appeared right next to her. Athena was a little surprised to see her daughter running, so it took her some time to catch up with her daughter, who continued to run.

"What is it?"

"Mom! I would hug you, but we need to get to Olympus, and STAT."

"Oh right," setting a hand on her shoulder, Athena flashed them selves onto Olympus, in her temple. "What do you need?" She asked. Annabeth jumped on the balls of her feet.

"Where does he live?"

"Who?"

"Percy! Where does Percy live?" Athena seemed a little suspicious but directed her nonetheless. As if a gun was fired, Annabeth sprang forward and barged into Percy's room, making Artemis yelp and jump five feet off the bed while managing to remain in fetus position. Artemis stood up and summoned her bow.

"What do you think you're doing here?"

"Percy's in trouble. Need to get something," Annabeth very briefly explained.

With Annabeth under her bed, Artemis quickly put on her hunters garb and clothing, along with her boots. "Where is he?" She asked Annabeth. "Don't know. That's why…aha!" Artemis heard the sound of her floor being torn open, and then thrown back to where it was probably ripped from. Annabeth rolled out from under the bed before realizing she was in Percy's house.

"Forgive me, milady. But it is an emergency and I momentarily forgot my manners," she bowed. Artemis grunted, but said nothing more.

"Percy is in trouble. He has been taken—"

"By who?"

"—by monsters that ambushed us. He told me that that was part of his plan, and to not use this device to track him until midnight. He says…"

"What? What does he say?"

"He says it is time to prepare for war," she let go of a breath she did not know she was holding.

"What does this have to do with you barging into our room and going under our bed. And taking something that probably belongs to _us_?"

"He instructed me to get this," she held a small remote looking thing in front of her. "He told me to drop in some of your and my blood and it will lead us back to him."

When Annabeth finished, they both looked at each other and sprang into action. Artemis called for all Olympians to meet in the throne room immediately, and they both ran towards the assigned room, forgetting they can teleport.

"What is it, daughter?"

"Father, it is Persues—"

"We are all searching for him. But with you asking for frequent meetings—"

"He sends a message," she cut him off just like he did to her. "He asks for us, and our children, to prepare for war." This started an uproar.

 _We have just healed from one!_

 _What?!_

 _She must be lying!_

 _With who?!_

"SILENCE!"


	10. The Dark Prince-Auntie Thalia

**So . . . Yesterday, I may or may not have been scrolling through movies. Until I came across Rise of The Guardians. Does anyone else think Jack Frost and Toothiana actually go together? This morning I woke up super early . . . Just to watch Rise of The Guardians again. Heh, great movie. I think the Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost balance each other out perfectly. One is always busy working and doing her job, not really having much fun. The other is fun and carefree and caring while knowing how to make other people have fun. So, I decided to satisfy my ROTG thirst, with fanfiction. And then I realized that there aren't a lot of very good ones. No offense. Anyways, enough with my rambling, hope you guys enjoy. Rise of The Guardians is awaiting!**

"You thought you could stay away from us forever?" Kronos walked back and forth in front of me. They tied me up, this time with my knees on the ground and my arms tied high above my head.

I spit ichor in his face.

He wiped it off.

Leaning in close to my face, his hands behind his back, he smiled. "You should've never run away from Grandpa. That makes me very sad. Papa missed you."

"You're wrong. _Papa misses_ me. Not 'missed.'"

"No no no no no," he shook his head. "It's _missed._ Papa," he spit in my face, "missed you. As in past tense. Because now you're here, and it's time for some father-son bonding time."

I struggled with my chains. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about that little gold curse you've got there," he lifted my shirt. And gestured toward the golden scars on my side. "I'm taking about the _power_ he's given you. Prince of Darkness. Don't act like you don't know."

"I'm not acting."

Her turned his head to the side. "Oh really? So, what about the night you truly got a taste of what you can do? Hmm? Or are you going to act like you don't remember?"

"What did you do to me?" I yelled and pulled forward. The wall cracked.

"Oh, I see you've grown some courage from the last time we met."

"You mean when you kidnapped me?"

"Tomato, tomahto." And he walked away.

"Hello, _son._ "

" _. . ._ dad?"

"I don't know sweat heart. I don't know where dad is. But we're looking. Everyone is. We just have to wait," Artemis hugged her child tighter to her waist as she stirred the tomato sauce.

"Well how long till we know?"

"Just a little longer," Annabeth walked in to swoop the other child that was on the floor (which happened to be Sally) into her arms. "Sorry I didn't knock, Lady Artemis. It's just—"

"I know." Artemis set Jake down and shooed him along with his sister upstairs to their room. Annabeth let her breath go. "Oh thank goodness, it'd be hard to explain in front of the kids where their father is."

"That's not what I meant. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. And you shouldn't be afraid either. I'm not upset. I'm just wondering."

Annabeth visibly deflated. "Wondering what?"

"Why?" Artemis turned around and turned off the stove. Sure, she could summon food at her will but she wanted her family to grow up at least a tad bit normally in the house. She sat down on one of the stools in front of the island. "You should've seen him when he arrived," she started. Annabeth sat on the other side.

"What're you talking about?"

"Percy. I know you love him, but I just don't understand why you did what you did."

"Oh. Um, you've made a big mistake—" she turned red.

"I know I should be jealous, but I know Percy wouldn't do that to me. It's his flaw. But why did you do it to him?

"When he first arrived at the hunt, ha. You should've seen him. I've never seen a man so _. . ._ So, _broken._ His eyes looked as endless as the void—and not in a good way. When he first came, he never smiled, never laughed, he was worse than Hades. Because even though he doesn't show it much, I know Hades feels. He can smile and laugh and have the same emotions the rest of us have.

"Anyways, you should have seen the huge impact your loss made on him. It was like there was this hole, where his heart should be. At least, that's how he acted. And then he started to get drunk, and go to bars and have fights, and fight with no mercy, have nightmares. Cry. I remember, one night, I woke up, and there he was. Bottle in hand; crying. That's when I knew I had to do something. If I didn't, I think we'd all be doomed by now. What's your reason?"

By now, Annabeth felt a tightness in her throat, a discomfort in her stomach, and a pressure behind her eyes. Her nose started to sting too. But she wasn't prepared to cry. "I don't know why. I honestly don't know. For a child of Athena I acted incredibly _stupid_ by letting him go."

Artemis almost felt bad. Almost. She was still upset at how much trouble and pain this girl has caused her husband. She just leaned forward and said two words. Two small little words that like a tidal wave, would have a huge impact on the girl in front of her. "I know."

"Hey Annie! You know what I just realized?" Thalia burst into Percy and Artemis's palace. Annabeth smiled and hugged Thalia. "What?"

"Respect your elders!" Thalia waved a finger in her face.

"Thalia, what are you talking about?"

"Nah-uh-uh young lady. It's _Aunt_ Thalia to you." Annabeth turned red. "What?"

"That's right. Listen. Ready? I am a child of Zeus—"

"What, really? I never knew!" Annabeth mocked shock. Thalia faked a frown.

"No wait just listen. Anyways, so I'm a child of Zeus. _Athena_ is a child of Zeus. So that makes Athena my sister." Annabeth began to realize where Thalia was going with this. "And so, if she's my sister, and she has a child—you for example—then that child will be my niece or nephew!" She held a fist to her chest as if it were a salute and smiled in her taste of pride. Annabeth blanched.

"Oh no."

"Oh! And if Percy is my cousin _. . ._ "

"Don't say it."

"Percy is also Athena's cousin. And if he had a cousin who had a child, that would make him the child's—! Uh _. . ._ " Thalia began to murmur under her breath and looked down to count on her fingers. "Let me think," she paused for a little. "You are his first cousin once removed! See Annie? I can be smart too!" Thalia beamed. Annabeth face-palmed. "This family is twisted in so many different levels," she muttered to herself.

"Oh! And—wait. Hmm. That would make me _. . ._ The first cousin first removed of Sally and Jack. And if Jack were to have kids, they're kids would be my first cousins _twice_ removed. Oh! And wait, let me think this one over. Oh. I thought I had another one. I guess not. You get the point. Wait! What are you to Sally and Jack? Let me think!"

Annabeth practically _dragged_ her hand down her face. "Thalia—"

"Thanks for the help Annie. You are their first cousin twice removed. And then their children will be your first cousin _three_ times removed. And—"

"Thalia!"

Thalia suddenly stopped. "Yes Annie?" She smiled sweetly. "Don't call me Annie. Anyways, what are you doing here?"

"To tell you of what I've discovered!"

Annabeth blankly stared at Thalia. Then she shook her head. "Alright, doesn't matter. Never mind. Anyways, I need your help."

"Anything."

Annabeth smiled. "Good."

"You know," Percy looked up and smiled sadistically at Tartarus. Blood trailed down from all sides of his face, and only parts of his mouth weren't stained with blood. "One in the Overland can argue this is child abuse. _Father,_ " he spat out the last word as if it were venom.

Tartarus gave him another kick. "Well, one in the Underworld can argue this is what you deserve, my Dark Prince. I give you all this power, and you repay me by running away?! What kind of son does that?!"

"I'll tell you when I find out." Tartarus turned and gave him a punch under his chin, making Percy snap his head up. "Let's see how _brave_ and sarcastic you are in a few hours. Take him to the Chamber."

Percy's eyes widened. "No. No! NO! No please, not the Chamber. Anything but the Chamber. I'll do anything you want! But please," Percy pulled against the chains as Cyclopes started to tug him down a dark hall. "Don't let them take me there!"

Tartarus stepped up to Percy. "I'm afraid the offer is off the table." He held his hand under Percy's chin to make him look at him. Percy spit blood in his face.

Tartarus stood up and slowly wiped it off. "Next time, _boy,_ " he sneered, "you open the door when opportunity knocks. Get this sea scum out of my sight. Now!"

 **Whoa. I did not expect Tartarus to claim Percy as his son.**

 **What have I done?!**

 **Oh that rhymed. Sort of. Anyways, if you haven't noticed I've tried to post a chapter every seven to eight days. So far it's working, and I hope I don't lose this little rhythm I've got going here. I'm still looking for more awesome Rise of The Guardians fanfics, of course Jack Frost and Tooth Fairy pairings. Anyways, see you guys next week.**


	11. Chaos and Secrets

_Tartarus wiped the spit off his face as he slowly stood up straight. He explained to her beloved that the next time opportunity knocks, open the door._

 _Percy was then dragged down a dark endless hall, screaming in terror._

Artemis sat bolt upright in her bed, panting and sweating. Eyes wide as dinner plates as they frantically jumped left and right, up and down, and surveyed every nook and cranny in her dark, empty room.

She remembered there was a time when she would do anything to come home. She would find Percy and their children having fun. Percy cooking and their children sleeping. Hell, she would be the happiest woman alive if she was able to be with a _drunk_ Percy for at least an hour. But now, the thought of coming home made her queasy.

Earlier this morning, when she finished her duties as Goddess of the Moon, she had walked home just to postpone the feeling of failure and dread. Her children were with Thalia and the rest of her huntresses. They all wanted some bonding time together and she (deciding everyone needed this break) had given them the okay to go hunting together and bond as brother and sisters would.

Artemis' lips trembled as she took in a sharp, choppy breath before slapping her forehead against her hands. Her elbows rested on her thighs (as she sat cross-legged) as she covered her face with her long, thin fingers. She felt a pressure build behind her eyes; a dam being built in her throat. A stingy-ness to her nose. She felt her cheeks puff up and chin quiver. Her breathing became ragged and hiccup-like. It felt as if she lost her back bone as her spine lost its strength and she hunched her back. She began to sob hysterically.

"I don't know. I mean, don't you think she'd be the first to know? I mean, she _is_ the Goddess of Childbirth. Shouldn't she know?"

Annabeth shook her head. "That's the thing. I believe she is intentionally ignoring the signs. I mean if _you_ fell in love, had twins, and then found out that your husband is missing, and you're having his kid, all within the time span of one year, would you really _want_ to know you're having the kid? I wouldn't. It's too much pressure. Especially if there's a small—very small—chance he'll come back."

"Annabeth," Thalia sighed. "What difference would this make anyways?"

"If we know, we'll be able to protect him or her." Annabeth answered vaguely.

"Protect the baby from what?" Thalia crossed her arms.

Annabeth uneasily shifted from foot to foot.

"Annabeth, what aren't you telling me?"

Annabeth ran a hand through her long hair. "If Artemis is indeed pregnant, we'll have to protect the baby _. . ._ From, Percy."

Thalia took a step forward to her best friend and grabbed Annabeth's elbow gently. "And why the hell will we need to do _that?_ "

Annabeth looked at Thalia. Her face told her everything she needed to know. "I think Percy is going to become Tartarus' next host."

"Why would I help you? _How_ could I even help you?"

Tartarus stood up, his lava eyes glowing and his black suit straight. " _That's_ the question you should be asking. You see, son, you are very powerful. You are a champion of Chaos, her first champion at that. You've had, a _fling_ I hear? Maybe, a one-time thing? Speaking of which, anything or _anyone_ come up from that? Doesn't matter," Tartarus shook his head.

" You, with or without your little consequence of that one night, are now the _king_ of the universe and Void. She, is your queen. Ha-ha-ha-a, you thought I wouldn't figure out, didn't you? Those nights before you fell in love with Artemis? I highly doubt you were at the bar alone. I think you were with someone else, drunk or not. You are my great-grandson–turned son. Champion of almost every god in the Olympian council. You are a son of Poseidon. Natural son, anyway. First and probably last husband of Artemis. What else?"

Tartarus began to walk back and forth between the chained-up Percy. "Oh that's right, you are the most powerful god in existence. Your blood—excuse me, ichor is so powerful it could might as well be the ichor of a titan. Or a primordial. You are a very useful source and being to Lady Chaos. You survived Tartarus for over eleven years. Three times. You are very strong minded and physically in shape too. So, the real question is: How could you _not_ help me?"

Percy, with his misshapen face due to the massive amount of torture done to him, looked up and glared at his so-called father.

He's using blackmail.

"I'd rather die than help you."

"N-n-n-n-no, no no, that won't do. See, I," he roughly held Percy's chin, "need you to help me. Whether you like it or not, you are going to be my next puppet, and I am going to be your puppeteer. Cooperate, and you get it easy. Resist, and let's just say Lady Chaos won't be the only one ashamed of herself."

Percy spit in Tartarus' face yet again, although this time with a little more ichor and saliva mixed in. "You don't have any proof."

"I have all the proof I'll ever need." With this, Tartarus pressed two fingers on Percy's forehead. Percy was forced to the submission of sleep.

 **Memory:**

" _Percy, what are you doing here?" Lady Chaos asked as she sat up on her bed, holding her bedsheets close to her chest. "I-mm sowwy," he began to slur in his half-drunken state. "For what? It's fine. It's just um, as you can clearly see I wasn't expecting visitors."_

" _I juust cou'n't stop t'inking 'bout you."_

" _Percy, are you drunk?"_

" _Whaat? N-no. Maybe a little." Chaos sighed as she snapped her fingers, lessening the blood-alcohol levels in Percy's blood stream. He'll still be slightly drunk, maybe buzzed, but he'll be able to talk properly. "You know," Percy started as he loosened his tie from the black suit he was wearing, "when I first met you," using the toes of his feet he pulled the heel of one of his black shoes off. "I thought you were very beautiful. I still think you are." He pulled off his tie and socks and started to crawl onto Chaos' King-sized bed._

 _Chaos blushed. "Oh yeah, I even remember calling you one of the most beautiful people I've ever met. I was sort of embarrassed to mess up in front of you. I was glad you made me your first champion. I may even have had a huge crush on you." He continued. He crawled on top of Chaos as if he were a lion, and his eyes were filled with lust and need._

 _Chaos gulped._

 _With his hand on either side of her body on the bed, and his knees pretty much straddling her waist, he leaned down. The grip on her sheets loosened as Chaos began to process what was happening._

 _She was going to become his first. And the funny thing is, she_ wanted _to be his first. She wanted to be his first and last and in-between. Slowly and hesitantly, she cupped the back of his neck with her hands. "Lady Chaos, I would love to have you be my first. Would you give me the honor of being one of your lovers?" Percy asked. In truth, he had no clue what he was doing. He felt…different. More in control. Powerful. He felt like what he felt like when he was a Roman. And this side of him_ needed _to be with Chaos._

 _Chaos' eyes slid down to look at Percy's lips before they closed. She leaned in, and in no time closed the small distance they had between them._

 _Percy felt fireworks go off in his head. He felt as if he just met his other half._

…

The problem? Percy was later on going to feel that _Artemis_ is his other half.

...

 _Chaos slowly started to lean back in her bed, causing Percy to follow after her. With one hand she started to work with the buttons on his shirt while he started to work on his belt and pants. When he realized he couldn't concentrate, he quickly got off the bed to undo his belt and the button and zipper on his black pants. Chaos opened the sheets and invited him under._

 _Thirty minutes later, they were still going at it, but none of them really cared. They felt need, love, lust and passion and tonight, they were going to feed their hunger._

 **End:**

"I mean, I guess it _was_ sort of your Roman counterpart, but it still counts. Doesn't it? How will Artemis feel when she finds out her husband has been cheating on her?"

"I haven't! Artemis is the love of my life!"

"A-a-ah, Artemis is the love of your _Greek_ life. Have you ever thought your Roman life gets a little _. . ._ Lonely?"

Percy stayed quiet. In all honesty, he never thought about it. But surely Artemis would notice that he's been running off, right? Surely he'd remember _something_ about his nights with Lady Chaos. Wouldn't he? _Shouldn't_ he remember waking up with Chaos in his arms, _naked_ in bed. But, he couldn't. And he was starting to put the fault on his "Roman counterpart."

If he really was a lover of Chaos, wouldn't she be protecting him right now? Wouldn't she be _saving_ him? Wouldn't she have never even let this happen in the first place?

There was only one thing Percy knew: He didn't know, but he was sure as hell going to find out.

 _XxxX_

 **Sorry, it sort of feels like a filler chapter but trust me it's going to be important for future chapters.**


	12. Search and Step 3

_Why haven't we started the search yet? My husband is out there, lost, and no one dares to begin the search? Much less care? Why doesn't anyone care?_

"Artemis?" Athena asked from her throne. Artemis looked at her sister. "Yes?"

"I was asking if you have the device?"

"What?"

"Are you sure you are feeling well? I can take this from here, if you would like."

Artemis looked around the throne room. All the sudden the empty seat beside her seemed to blur everything out and call to her attention.

Artemis shook her head.

"Sorry, no. I do not at the moment have the device in my possession. I believe your daughter holds that honor."

Athena nodded her head. "I see."

The meeting continued.

Artemis lost herself in her pool of thoughts once again.

_|M.M.J. 12|_

"Hey Lil Sis! Are you sure you're okay?"

Artemis blankly stared into her brother's blue eyes. Everything seemed to rush back to her.

"Yes, yes. Everything is fine. Why do you ask?"

Apollo shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know. I guess you just seem _. . ._ Distant. Yeah that's the word. And besides, you still haven't shot me."

Artemis quirked a fine eyebrow. "And why, pray tell, would I shoot you?"

Apollo simply stared at Artemis. His mouth in the verge of hitting the floor. Realizing how he could "get away with murder" he shook his head. "No reason. Anyways," he tried to change the subject, "what do you want to do?"

Artemis began to march forward and push past her brother. "I'm going to find my husband."

" _I wouldn't do that if I were you."_

Artemis turned around to face her brother. "Excuse me?"

Apollo raised his arms up in the universal sign of surrender. "I didn't say anything!"

Artemis narrowed her eyes. "Yes, you did." She stomped forward.

" _No he didn't."_ A voice chuckled.

Artemis' head whipped to the side. "Who's there?" She called out. Apollo set a hand on his twin's shoulder. "Sis!" He yelped and pulled his hand away. "You're burning up! We need to get you to bed."

As he started to pull Artemis back to her palace, Artemis set a knife to his throat. A knife, she had grabbed from her husband's cloak. His hands shot up in the air.

"I am not going to bed. I am going to Athena's palace to have a discussion. Whether you accompany me or you don't, I do not care," she stated threateningly. Apollo sighed.

"Fine. FlashDancers NYC can wait."

_|M.M.J. 12|_

"Is it possible for primordials in Tartarus to communicate with us?"

Athena shifted in her seat. "Only if the primordial is strong enough, or feeding off of the energy of a strong source."

"And how do they, _obtain,_ that energy?"

"Well, Gaia, I believe, was able to receive her energy from the blood of demigods coming into contact with the earth. According to Tartarus' domain, he would need to feast off of the blood supplied from torture, pain, or evil that was bestowed upon someone. And so on so forth. Why, if you don't mind me asking, do you ask?"

Artemis seemed to be deep in thought. "Nothing. I am just curious. What if Tartarus _wants_ Percy to be found?"

Athena took a moment to think. She looked up from her desk and removed her hand from her chin. "Then we don't find him." She smiled.

_|M.M.J. 12|_

Tartarus let his eyes fall to the back of his head in pleasure. He couldn't help but let out a small moan as he pulled the gold-liquid-filled goblet from his lips. He turned to face a cyclops who served him the heavenly drink.

"What was it?"

The cyclops tried not to look below his master's face. He did not want to seem disrespectful. The cyclops then smiled when he realized that he must be special if the lord would allow him in his presence. "Your favorite, my lord."

"Ah, yes. I see. I think one more dose and a day of rest should be sufficient enough to make me powerful enough for step three."

The cyclops left to allow Tartarus to continue his occupations. **(No don't think dirty. Tartarus is just preparing to "take over Percy")**

_|M.M.J. 12|_

 **Percy's POV:**

"Artemis please don't do this," I panted as Riptide clattered to my side. She scowled and slapped me, her ring leaving a dash on my face.

"You filthy pig!" She kicked my chest, causing me to fall backward onto my side.

"Artemis, please, listen to me! I love you, I would never cheat on you! We have a family!" I felt tears begin to stream down my face. I pulled myself back to my knees.

"Lies!" She slashed at me. "All of you men are always filled of lies! Don't you see how much pain you have caused me? How much suffering I am going through? Hurt?

"You promised! You promised you'd never hurt me! Hurt us!" She began to cry. "What would Sally and Jake say? What would they _think?"_ I started to crawl to her like the pathetic and desperate animal I am.

I hugged her.

"Artemis, please forgive me. I am—"

"A sorry and pathetic excuse of a god."

"Her" face shifted into that of a monster. With yellow rotting teeth, three hairs combed back (as if that made him even the slightest bit more irresistible[which he's not]), and a bottle of beer in his hand. A cigar between those ugly teeth.

I crab-crawled and stumbled back. His name escaped past my lips.

I looked at the ground and watched in horror as it shifted into a blue carpet. I looked around the area.

We were back at Mom's old apartment in Manhattan.

"Heh. Just like old times, eh? If someone expects to live here, there are some prices to pay." He taunted. He said the last part in a sing-song voice.

He struck.

Just like old times indeed.

_| **End** |_


	13. A Beast Worthy of Legends

**Artemis's POV:**

Have you ever found yourself talking to yourself and think, _Wow, I'm going insane_? Try to multiply that feeling by one thousand. Although, in this situation I'm _not_ talking to myself.

During random moments I would hear Tartarus's voice taunting me, telling me something. One time I even heard Percy begging for mercy and to leave him where he is because he deserves it. Acting as if he's done some crime and is a criminal that needs to be punished. Sometimes I would talk back, and my sisters or the other gods will look at me and question my sanity. Of course, I would pretty much growl at them and tell them to shut up, but then _I'd_ question my sanity.

Athena and I came up with a battle plan. Since we have reason to believe that Tartarus wants Percy to be found, we won't look for him. Instead we'll prepare. It took some time, but I was able to finally accept the plan and play my part. Apollo, the Hunt and I went to Camp Half-Blood to teach archery to the campers. Ares and Athena arrived to teach them hand-to-hand combat; sword, dagger and spear skills. I also taught how to use hunting knives. The older campers would help and assist us when the assistance was needed. Hephaestus got working with his children on some new machinery and inventions, and the best part is none of us are breaking the ancient laws. Because we are not allowed to interfere with our children's life, we were able to find a way where none of the gods would be considered "interfering." Actually, Chaos helped us with finding this small loop hole. Chaos has actually tried her best to help us, well, at the beginning she did. After a day or two we heard absolutely nothing from her. She was completely swept off the grid. Which means we are once again on our own.

"Milady, how long will we be camping here?"

"Until he comes out. Then we'll follow him. Do not give away our position."

Thalia nodded her head and ran to spread word.

 **Third Person:**

Artemis, trying to clear her head, went out hunting by herself. She had seen a mysterious figure earlier and was determined to find it and hunt it down. With her bow drawn, she walked silently through the forest.

Almost an hour passed by by the time she heard the snapping of a twig over to her right. Her head whipped to the side, and she immediately crouched down to the ground. Peering over a bush, she saw a cloaked figure standing in the middle of a clearing with his broad arms spread out wide, as if welcoming a large hug from someone you haven't seen in forever. Deciding she had to get to the bottom of this, she approached the unknown man.

"Ah," he started without even turning around to face Artemis. "You're finally here," he turned around.

"I didn't think it'd take you this long. I mean, I may be new to this form, but I made it here before you," he taunted.

Artemis ground her teeth and aimed her bow at the man. "Tartarus. What do you want?"

"Me?" He turned around and raised his hand. "Nothing," he smiled, and flicked his wrist.

Artemis's eyes widened as she hit the dirt due to seeing the metal glint in front of her. She immediately stood back up and stared at him in shock. "When did you—" but she didn't get to finish. And maybe she would never be able to know what she was going to say.

A large black, six foot figure jumped in front of her as it howled in what seemed like pain. It growled and bared its teeth at Tartarus.

Tartarus smiled as if he just saw his friend and not an enemy.

"Oh," he raised an eyebrow. "I see you've made it. And just in time too. Maybe a little late though, if you came earlier you wouldn't have that silver in your side right now, would you?"

Artemis took this time to observe the large black thing in front of her. It had four large paws and a round head. It's ears were down, close to the side of its head as it bared its large canine teeth at the lord of the pit. Artemis almost reached a hand out to touch the grey streak of long fur. She couldn't believe how beautiful and majestic this thing was. With its black fur, white sharp teeth, and pure green eyes, she would be surprised if the locals have yet to make legends of the beast.

When the animal turned its head to look at her, her eyes widened in shock.

It was a wolf.

And the wolf had a large disk of silver in its ribcage.

The beast howled to the moon, as if dedicating this kill to Artemis herself, and thundered forward almost effortlessly, but faster than lightening. It ran forward and toward Tartarus and didn't stop when another disk lodged itself into his front leg. It jumped as if it wanted to reach the stars, and chomped onto Tartarus's shoulder. Tartarus cursed under his breath and pulled the wolf off his shoulder, causing the teeth of the insanely large beast to pull a large piece of meat with it. Instead of eating it, the wolf shook his head and nearly spit the meat out of its mouth. It growled, and pounced at him again.

Tartarus stepped back to prepare for the attack to come, but it never did. Instead, the wolf pounced at Artemis and threw her on his back and started to run forward. It ran faster than a mortal car, and would sometimes look back to see if Tartarus was following. All the sudden they were thrown to the side, the wolf hugged Artemis and closed its eyes as the wolf hit its back with a tree.

Artemis heard a snap on impact, but turned to see the tree wasn't what snapped.

The wolf whimpered, but nonetheless limped in front of Artemis, prepared to give its life for hers. Artemis saw Tartarus smile. "Aw, a wolf's fatal flaw, loyalty. I tell them it's going to get them killed one day, but no one listens. Tell me, _boy,_ are you prepared to watch as she suffers in my arms? Are you prepared to watch as I make her mine?" He smiled sadistically and summoned his armor and spear.

The wolf growled.

Tartarus raised an eyebrow.

"I was once told," he smiled, "that the teen years are the worst."

And the wolf lunged.

Tartarus stepped to the side, and his sword grazed the wolf's side. The wolf whimpered.

It turned around and ran at Tartarus again with lust for blood showing in its eyes.

The true animal was showing itself.

It bared its teeth and jumped on Tartarus. It threw him to the ground and, biting on his shoulder, threw Tartarus at the farthest tree. Tartarus kept his cool.

The beast ran forward and clawed at Tartarus's face, leaving three long cuts. Tartarus seemed like he had enough, so he thrust his sword up, the wolf's eyes widened in terror.

The sword went straight through its lungs and nearly missed its heart by half a centimeter.

The wolf took a minute to breathe, and seemed to accept defeat.

Or maybe not.

It took a step forward in defiance, while all Artemis could do was stare and cringe as she heard the _squish_ of blood and metal piercing flesh.

The sword started to poke out the other side of the beast's body.

With a flick of his wrist, Tartarus sent the animal flying, the body flew forward Artemis, and the wolf went to hug Artemis to help soften the impact. Artemis hit her head on the ground and before she blacked out, she felt bare arms enclosing around her as she saw Tartarus's boots saunter toward her.

_| **M.M.J. 13** |_

Artemis woke up to the sound of slow breathing and what she thought was water slowly hitting the ground. She felt as if her head had a second heart in it, as her brain thudded against her skull.

She groaned, and sat up, planting her hands on the cold concrete floor to push/hold herself up. She looked up, and saw a man tied up with chains that went into the walls. The cuffs held his hands above his head, which had fallen to his chest. His legs were bent and his knees were harshly and painfully pressed against the ground. They were spread apart, and between his legs was a large pool of blood.

She looked up at his head, but was only able to see the left side and the large black mop of hair. Blood was trailing down his face from somewhere near his hair, all the way to his chin, where it dropped into the ever-growing red pool.

The man was wearing nothing. If you didn't count the pair of very ripped (to the point where it was pretty much just thread around his upper thighs and lower hips) brown shorts then one would say the man was naked. His body was covered in scars and blood. If Artemis didn't know better, she'd say he took a bath in the blood. But she knew better, so she knew the blood was his.

Artemis squinted her eyes, and gasped as she saw the familiar, small, nail-sized scars that ran from his lower back, to the top of his shoulders. She knew where those came from all too well, and flushed when she remembered who gave him them.

Suddenly the recent events rushed back to her, and everything came together like a puzzle.

Wolf with galaxy black fur and a grey streak.

Beast that was ready to die for her.

Six feet tall.

Green eyes.

Scars all over this man's body.

The wolf wasn't a wolf or beast after all. It was a werewolf.

And the name of the wolf's human form?

"Percy."

 **Hey guys. I am soooooo sorry I made you wait an extra four days. Things got complicated, and yeah. Anyways, as always I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review. Please review, it'll help make my hellish and emotional day.**


	14. Dead Line

**Irony** **:** _ **noun— the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.**_

 **Third Person:**

In a world of war, battle, gods and myths, noise is something you _want_ to hear. So Artemis was terrified when she heard the most horrifying noise known to man.

Silence.

Absolute and utter silence.

Why is silence— something known as peaceful, something sought by mankind— so terrifying? Because this is hell, and hell is a place of torment and anguished souls and monsters. So naturally, when Artemis heard no sound, she became horrified of the near future. Of course, she wasn't going to let her enemies know.

Artemis slowly felt herself going insane, with a thing as simple as silence. Silence is not even a living thing. It is simply the lack or the absence of sound. Although silence is the lack of noise, it does not lack power. It is powerful enough to make the most sane man to ever live, crumple to his knees.

Artemis decided to try and calm herself by crawling over to her left-for-dead husband, and try to wake him. When she came to no avail, she wrapped her arms around his torso and started shaking his whole body by pushing all her weight against him. "Percy," she grunted. "Percy, honey, wake up!" Now, Artemis wasn't normally one to use words such as "honey," "baby" or "babe" but she was really getting desperate to get herself and her husband out of the hell hole alive.

After shaking and pounding her husband against the wall, Artemis was beginning to tire and sweat. Artemis is a life-long hunter, she _never_ sweats. _That's probably what happens when you try to wake up_ the _Perseus Jackson,_ she shrugged.

After sitting down for a whole minute, she decided to take a new approach to her _. . ._ _situation_. She slowly stood up, and walked over to the bars of the cell, looking left and right, down familiar looking halls. She grabbed her dagger from the sheath on her lower back, and started to silently hack at the silver chains burning at her husband's wrists.

When she heard him groan and saw him shift, she nearly shouted in glee and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek before slashing at the chains with renewed vigor.

When she started hearing foot steps coming her way, she cursed under her breath and did one thing she knew would wake Percy up.

She stabbed him in the thigh.

He woke up, eyes wide, and roared in the sudden unfamiliar pain. She looked up and thanked the Fates her Husk was okay, before looking back at his thigh and pulling the dagger out. She immediately set her hand on his thigh, over the cut, so that his ichor could healthily clot and close the cut. She heard Percy wince but looked up to see him give her a forced smile.

"You know," he started with a cracking voice, Artemis looked at him, waiting for something helpful to come out of his mouth, "if you wanted to touch me there was no reason to stab me. All you have to do is ask," he said, lightening the mood. Artemis shook her head and looked down at his thigh. The cut was fully healed. It did, Artemis grimly noticed, take longer than it should have.

The footsteps got louder and louder by the step. Percy, being the _brave_ man he is, immediately whispered to Artemis to "play dead," whatever that meant. Gods can't die. Maybe he meant to act like they were still sleeping? Artemis went back to where she woke up, after taking the dagger back and cleaning the ichor off her hand, and curled up the way she was before all this happened. She tightly closed her eyes, and waited.

With every step the approaching demon took, Artemis began to untangle little bits of Percy's plan.

One time, she and her sisters (the Hunt) were hunting for dinner. They had come across a sleeping heard of deer. Deciding it was very low to feed on unsuspecting game, and would be a big hit to their, well, ego if they did hunt _sleeping_ deer, they left to find other foods.

Artemis understood now. _Just act as if you're sleeping, and buy yourself more time to get out of here._ That was Percy's master plan.

Did he have a Plan B in mind?

The footsteps became so loud, they were unbearable. Artemis actually tried to really fall asleep to escape the horror of knowing someone dangerous is within feet of her. Artemis absolutely _hated_ feeling weak and scared, but she has a family. She has things she didn't have before, and she can't afford to leave them, or worse, have them leave her.

The footsteps, from what Artemis could hear, were less than two cells away from them.

_|M.M.J. 14|_

" _. . ._ and then, we will move in—"

Amy came running into the tent, cutting Thalia and Phoebe off as they made a battle plan. "Thalia! Thalia!"

Thalia closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and turned around to see little Amy. She smiled and picked her up, setting her on the side of her hip. "Hey, A! What's up?" Thalia frowned as she watched the little ball of energy try to catch her breath.

"It's Arty. Arty, she hasn't been back for three hours!" She exclaimed in a worried tone. Thalia didn't even correct Amy on the way she called Artemis something only Apollo and Percy dare to call her. "Really? If I sent out a small group to search would that help you calm down?" Thalia tried to be a good friend and lieutenant. Amy nodded her head. "Alright," she turned to Phoebe and nodded.

"Let's get a team going."

_|M.M.J. 14|_

"You!" Zeus bellowed as he pointed a finger accusingly at Poseidon.

"I'm going to strip your bastard of his powers and immortality. I am going to send him into a punishment only you and Apollo can even _dream_ about dreaming of. There will be no trials. He shall die abandoned! How dare he! My daughter is out there, lost, BECAUSE OF HIM!" He thundered. Poseidon kept a solemn face throughout his brother's outrage.

"I am going to tear him limb from limb, and—and, crumble him up into a ball so that I can hold his little form in my hand and crush it! Then—"

Hestia, seeming to have enough of this, and cut in. "Zeus."

"Then I'm going to feed him to…"

"Zeus!"

"WHAT?"

Everyone in the throne room gasped. No one dared yell at Hestia. She was beautiful, but powerful and quiet. Things that dangerous things would be described as.

She kept her cool.

"Zeus, _little_ brother, I would appreciate it if you did not speak about my first Champion/son as such. He loves Artemis, I am sure he is doing all in his power to protect her. He just needs time."

Hestia, using her powers just a little bit, calmed the thunder god down. He sat down in his seat, and letting go a very long breath, looked at his brother.

"Three weeks. That's it," and flashed away.


	15. We Are Bound Love

**Wow guys. Chapter** _ **fifteen**_ **. Oh how time goes by… I'd like to thank you all who have sticked with me and my horrible timing. Thank you all for the reviews, favorites and following and views. Hope you enjoy.**

" _Chaos . . ."_ Artemis heard Percy moan. She felt herself flush as she began thinking of reasons why he would call out _her_ name. Maybe he was praying out to her, praying for someone to save him. After what he went through, she shouldn't complain.

Turns out, it was indeed Tartarus walking to their cell. He had gotten very, _intimate,_ with Artemis, but did not go all the way. If Percy growled or did something not in compliance, then he would remove an article of clothing from Artemis. If Artemis did something to rebel, he promised to kill Percy and then make her his.

After messing with Artemis, and leaving a "love" bite, which Artemis and Percy can both assure you there was no love; Tartarus dragged Percy to a separate room for his "daily dose." When Tartarus came back, he looked stronger, fuller, more powerful. On the other hand, Percy looked drained, powerless, and hopeless. Tartarus did not bother to chain Percy up, allowing Artemis and Percy to move freely. She had crawled over to his sleeping form and pulled him up, his body leaning on her as she cradled his torso, but mainly his head. He was limp.

Two Underworldly days later, Tartarus sauntered into the cell. Percy and Artemis were chatting about escaping, as he slowly clapped his hands for a dramatic effect.

"Tartarus," Percy growled, "what do you want?"

He smiled and spread his arms out wide, as if waiting for a big hug that would never come. "Who, me?" He pointed innocently at himself and chuckled, waving his hands in front of him. "No. No, no, no, no. I'm not here to harm you. In fact, I'm here to grant you your freedom."

Percy looked taken aback. "Freedom?" He asked hesitantly, the gears in his head turning.

"Yes," Tartarus shoved his hands in the pockets of his dress pants before leaning on the heels of his feet, tip toeing and then setting his black dressy shoes flatly on the ground. "Your freedom. Although, on one condition," he faced Percy with a solemn expression on his face and features.

"The prince stays."

Percy and Artemis looked at each other.

 **_|** **M.M.J. 15** **|_**

"No, no, no, _nooooo_ ," Poseidon began to get frustrated with his small search team. The team consisted of himself, the Hunt, Athena, Annabeth, Hestia, and Aphrodite, who was able to convince Ares to also come. Apollo was taking care of his godly duties.

"We all know he is in Tartarus. We just need to find how to get him _out._ "

"Why don't we do the same thing as last time?" Ares asked.

"Because," Athena sighed, "as far as we know, Tartarus is involved."

"Yeah. We all know Percy is in Tartarus. So what?"

"Ares, the primordial, all powerful, _that_ Tartarus is involved; and we do not know how strong he is. Artemis had reason to believe he is feeding off of Percy's blood."

"Oh." Ares stayed quiet.

Poseidon sighed heavily and rubbed his hand down his face, clearly stressed. It had been two days since Artemis went missing, and according to what they were told by Percy, it must've been five to ten days in the Underworld. Boy oh boy is the after-life confusing.

"I think we should wait, then." Ares and Athena looked at each other, and for the first time in a century, they agreed.

"Excuse me?" Poseidon glared at them.

"Yeah. It's simple; before taken, Percy told the girl that we need to prepare for war, right?"

Everyone nodded. Athena then continued.

"Well, let's assume what he meant is prepare to engage in a battle, with Tartarus himself. Or worse, Tartarus taking over Percy's body, _and then_ fighting us. We need to think thoroughly, and I believe that preparing, will definitely benefit us."

Poseidon banged the bottom of his trident against the marble floor.

"Alright," he sighed, "Hestia, please be a darling and warn Chiron. Everyone, we meet tomorrow at the same time as today. Dismissed," and he flashed off. One by one, everyone flashed away. Athena, sending Annabeth back to CHB.

 **_|** **M.M.J. 15** **|_**

Zeus glared at Poseidon as they passed by each other, Poseidon walking into his temple. Zeus's nose flared as he watched his family walk in behind Poseidon.

The doors closed.

…

"No!" Poseidon screamed as he slammed his fist on the table. "We are not letting him rot there. What if Tartarus never lets him go?"

"He will—"

"No. He won't," someone interrupted Athena. Apollo stood up straight, remembering that voice.

"ARTY!" He ran to her and hugged her tightly. She winced, and only then did he realize how she was cradling her abdomen.

"What did he do to you?" He growled.

"Nothing Brother. Tartarus did not do this to me. It was myself, and our decision."

"You left my son there to die?!"

"No! I did not, Uncle. I _saved_ him. There was nothing we could do, we… we had to transfer some of him into me. I," she pulled up her shirt a little bit, just above her belly button, to show them a golden writing right over her right hip, "did this to myself. I begged him to do it. We are bound, and now I will know if anything happens to my husband. He has struck a deal with the devil, and this is our trump card," she explained.

"Are you out of your mind, Sis?! That can kill you!"

"I am aware of the dangers," she frowned. "I knew this was the only way to ensure our child's safety. My child's, and Percy's. As long as I bear the curse, I will know everything that happens to my husband. As I have said before, I _need_ this. It is what binds us, surely you understand. Once he is back, he can remove the binding. Right now, my guardian is in trouble and I must get him back. With, or without your help," she stood up defiantly.

Athena, Aphrodite and Hestia seemed to be the only ones to catch "child" in Artemis's little speech.

Poseidon sat straight in his chair. "Okay. Alright, if that can help us save my boy, then I am willing to comply. Athena, Ares, prepare the children for war. The rest of you, I suggest you do the same. I have some business to take care of."

Apollo helped Artemis back to her home, and brought the kids over from his temple. Jake and Sally hugged their mother with all their might **(imagine Jack as Jake T. Austin. I don't really have an actress for Sally, yet)** after changing and looking at herself in the mirror, Artemis became determined to win the war before it even started.

An amazing thing, love. It causes you to cry, smile, laugh, do random things. Love is a raft in an ocean of sharks. Love is the wings when you fall. Love is not having to _know_ the person, to know the person. Love is confusing and gets you into trouble, but at the end, it's all worth it.

Love is something the average man can't find in a life time. So when you find it, wrap yourself in it and don't let go. Because if you let go of the person you love, then prepare to sit back and watch someone else do it for you; and by then, it's too late to finish what you started.

Artemis looked at herself in the mirror. The war may have not even started yet, but she was going to end it. She was going to end it, and she and her husband will live together happily. She was not going to end it for herself, the safety of the world (damn the world and everything in it), or for the other gods. She was doing this for Percy. Sally. Jake. And baby Carter. Yes, she admits it, she is indeed pregnant, and no one was going to ruin this. _No one._


	16. I Gotta Pee

**There was a small mix up last chapter. The two kids that Artemis and Percy have are Sally and Jake. Not Jack. I accidentally wrote Jack when I was telling you all how he looks. Whoopsie. Oh and Sally and Jake are twins.**

 _. . ._

 **Percy's POV:**

 _It felt as if my soul was sucked back into my body. Instead of seeing pitch darkness I saw light. I saw colors. Red, peach, orange, silver, gold. I looked down, to see myself standing in a red puddle. I stepped off the little mud-like substance and looked around me. Everywhere I looked, there were empty helmets on swords that were struck into the ground. Blood leaking from the eye holes of the helmets. Blood on the floor. Bodies strewn and twisted on the ground as if making some type of sick artwork._

 _I looked down at my feet, and I saw auburn hair. My heart stopped and I looked at my hand, seeing Riptide in my hand, facing the ground as if I had just finished stabbing someone from underneath me. I looked back from where I felt my consciousness come back._

 _I screamed and fell to my knees._

 _On the floor, with her eyes open and lifeless, was Artemis._

 _I had killed her._

. . .

 **Third Person:**

Percy sat up, panting and sweating as if he had run a marathon. When he looked around and found himself back in his cell, he sighed with relief. _So,_ he thought, _it had been just another dream._ This is not the first time the Guardian of Artemis had dreamed of killing his wife. These nightmares are what ultimately push him to stay awake all night and day. Unfortunately, one can only stay awake for so long before the body shuts down to try and regain its rightful energy.

"So? Have you made up your mind?"

With a bloody face, Percy looked up remorsefully at Tartarus. "I have, Father."

 **_|** **M.M.J. 16** **|_**

"So, Tartarus is going to use my son as his next host? There is nothing we can do about that?"

"There is, but we believe it would be best to let Tartarus do so. It is the best plan that has a higher probability to allow your son to _not_ fade."

"And you," Poseidon started, turning back to Artemis, "you of all people are _okay_ with this?"

Artemis nodded her head defiantly.

Poseidon slumped deeper into his throne. "Okay, but if my son dies, and is not brought back to me, Olympus will never be able to seek aid from the seas ever again!" With that, the god of seas flashed away to his underwater kingdom.

"Prepare the demigods," Athena said, facing Hermes. "I feel the war shall begin at anytime. Send the message to all demigods and camps. Olympians, it is time we lead our children home. Every child of every God and/or Goddess shall be lead to their haven, where they will be protected from war. Have the veterans up front, and the lines of defense sorted by experience and skill. Prepare," and she flashed to Camp. Artemis turned to face her Aunt Hestia, "Um, will you please take care of them while I am gone?"

"Do what you must, child. I shall protect your children with the power of the Hearth."

"Thank you. Brother, I feel you will be needed at camp, safe journeys."

"Safe journeys."

"Safe Journeys," and one by one, the gods bowed to and hugged one another as a family should, and they all wished each other luck with the war. Hestia smiled. Now _this,_ is what being a family is all about.

. . .

"I don't like it," Thalia said as she entered the resting tent. Her, Artemis and the Hunt were set up between every line of defense, to enable archer support for each and every line. Thalia watched as Artemis hunched over a map of the battle field.

"What is it?"

"It's been absolutely silent for three days now! Why hasn't at least a twig been snapped yet?"

"They are preparing— Building suspense. They have Perseus's mind on their side, surely they will be waiting for the right moment to strike."

"Yeah well the only action we get is when new demigods arrive."

"Good. What are our numbers?"

"Five thousand of us in total. A few hundred Greeks have arrived since Athena threw the order. Two-hundred-and-thirty-two Roman demigods have arrived. _Together_ we are five thousand. And half of the demigods are either too young or not trained enough. What should we do?"

"Have the last two lines and one hundred Romans train the ones who are old enough. That should leave us with three defense waves, and more than half of the Romans to help keep guard. Also, check on Hephaestus and his cabin and how they are going with the traps and new 'Guardians' he has planned."

"Yes, Milady."

"Oh, and for the younger ones, have Apollo's cabin teach them the basics of medicine," with that last order, Thalia was dismissed.

Roughly fifteen minutes after Thalia left, the conch shell was blown, signaling the first line of defense and the ½ line (the Hunters that are between lines 1 & 2) to prepare, and the second line to build a shield wall. Artemis stepped out of her tent as demigods and archers ran back and forth, some climbing trees, others crouching on the ground. Her bow was in her hand, an arrow already drawn, and her quiver filled with 52 arrows at-the-ready. In the distance, she heard Annabeth shouting orders, and telling the demigods to not attack yet and to hold their ground. The demigods hesitated, but followed the orders of one of the Immortals. She watched as—with a white flag—Annabeth stepped forward with two "body guards" dressed up in armor. Not even their faces were identifiable. With one hand resting on the hilt of their sword, and the other swaying helplessly on their side, the two guards marched one step ahead of Annabeth to ensure no harm comes to her. Artemis took this as her cue to step up, behind Annabeth.

All their hard work for negotiation was lost when a spear was thrown by one of the monsters. The guards were quick to block the attack with their shields, and pulled out their swords. The four retreated quickly back behind the borders of camp, and commanded the army of demigods to charge and attack at will, but to keep the line together. On her way up a tree, Artemis wondered how long this war will last. Surely, this was just one battle of more to come. This is the battle that will help test each other's strengths. She began to robotically aim and shoot, none of her arrows missing their target. Artemis was about to shoot another arrow, when she noticed something.

Far away from where the battle was taking place (which the defense line was not wavering at all. Monsters are losing, for now) five Cyclopes carried a huge silver/black cage with barely enough room for a developing young man. There were spikes that pointed inward, keeping whatever it was in there contained. The Cyclopes used their metal club to poke at the caged victim, pointing and laughing. Artemis narrowed her eyes, using her godly vision to try and see what could possibly be their key to winning. She pointed it out to one of Hermes's children, who spread word to the others to try and assemble a team to keep an eye on "the prize."

Artemis continued firing, but the _thing_ inside the cage raged in her mind like a plague.

 **_|** **M.M.J. 16** **|_**

" _What are you doing?" Asked Artemis as she backed away from Percy._

 _Percy stepped forward, a dagger in hand. "What I should've done long ago_. . . _"_

 **(Percy that is not italicized is real Percy. Not dream one)** Percy _watched as Percy (his dream self, that is) struck the dagger right into his wife's heart, dragging it down and sinking it more in, twisting when he reached her navel. He pulled the dagger out, and thrust it back in. Her limp body leaned into him as he continuously stabbed her in her abdomen._ Percy _watched in utter horror as he himself killed her. He took a step back in his shock._

Why am I dreaming of this? _he thought._ And why now?

Percy _turned around, as if he could not watch and try to block out the sound of ichor rushing out of his beloved's wounds. Wounds, that he—or his dream-self, whatever—made. His hand balled up into a fist, and he squeezed his eyes shut._

. . .

Percy sat up, drenched in sweat and in a wave of nausea and exaggerate pants. He placed a spread-out hand over his heart, as if he could keep it from pumping out of his chest. His eyes were wide as dinner plates, and his sweat made a thin layer of gleaming armor over his skin. Although he doubted with all he could that mere _sweat_ could protect him from anything. He was stuffed into this cage and placed to watch a battle unfold for days now, and he wished he could do anything to help out his family.

"Tartarus," he said, gripping the bars. Soon, there was an awful and incredibly strong stench of burning flesh, and Percy tried his best to not so much as flinch. He _did not_ want to give the monsters satisfaction. "I request a presence from the King!"

"Ah, shut it. And hands off the bars!" A cyclops whacked Percy's hands with the wooden end of his spear. Percy growled, but obeyed nonetheless. He pulled his hands back to the sides, and tried to move to remove his boots.

When Tartarus offered him the deal, he had made a mistake and had given Percy a nice cool bath, ambrosia and nectar, and all his Guardian clothes back. Although, the weapons were helpless against the bars, they did help keep him entertained. He would smack the hilt against the metal and try to make a tune to sing along to. When the guards would tell him to shut up, he would make a sarcastic comment about "treating their Prince with respect." The guard would just scoff and return to his post. Percy looked back and forth.

"Pssst. Pssst!"

A guard turned around to face Percy. "Listen, I know I just went at 'home', but I _really_ gotta go. Do you think you can do your prince a favor? If you do, I'll convince Tartarus to raise your _. . ._ pay?"

"I don't get payed."

"Well then, you uh, you will. Yeah, if you do me this small favor I'll convince him to raise the amount of demigods you're allowed to eat." Percy felt like vomiting everything he's ever eaten with just that one sentence. The guard took a step forward, then a step back, before he grumbled under his breath and pulled out some keys.

Percy grinned. _Stupid cyclops._

The door of the cage swung open, and Percy had to fight the feeling of punching the monster in the eye and making a run for it. The cyclops pulled him to the side of the cage, and held him there.

"Go." He grunted.

"What, here? Listen, I don't know how you monsters think of privacy, but I don't want any of you or your buddies watching me," he leaned in. "It's embarrassing." The cyclops groaned in frustration and pulled him to a secluded area, away from the borders of where the Dark Army was camping, and where no one would be able to "watch Percy 'go'."

Percy stood in front of a tree, his legs spread apart, ready to do something he didn't tell the guard he'll do. When he took a while playing with his zipper, the cyclops came over to check why he was taking so long.

"Sorry. Having technical difficulties. Can you help me?" He tried to get the cyclops even closer. The cyclops obliged. He took a step forward, and almost immediately, Percy flipped the dagger in his hand and pulled it into a semi-circle behind him.

The cyclops's head rolled on the floor as it turned to dust.

Percy took this as his cue to sprint forward and into a tree, where none of the patrolling guards will find him. He jumped from tree to tree, aiming for Thalia's to get past the border line. He took his final jump, using all his strength, and missed the branch by a centimeter. He fell to the ground on his side, and started to roll to allow his body to absorb the shock. He rolled past the border line, and into the feet of a demigod. Almost immediately a spear was pressed against his throat.

"Who are you?"

He felt the tip press against his Adam's apple. He only said one name. "A-A-Artemis," and then, he was gone.

 **_|** **M.M.J. 16** **|_**

"Where is he?" Artemis stormed into the infirmary. Will Solace shooed everyone out of the room and allowed Artemis entry. "The last bed to your right," he said, and left. Artemis marched forward, and when she found a man with a black cloak sitting up, hunched over a cup he had lazily in his hand, she struck.

 _SLAP!_

The cup—most likely nectar—was dropped to the floor and the man sat straight up. "The Hades was that for?!"

"For making me do that! Don't _ever_ make me go through that again. Am I clear?" She leaned forward and pointed a finger at him. He looked into her eyes and nodded. She nodded her head and hugged him tightly, as if she were holding herself together.

"How-how did you get free?"

"I had to pee," Percy shrugged. Artemis raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"How are the kids?"

"They're with your mom Hestia."

"Oh." Percy slumped into the bed.

Artemis gasped. "We _have_ to get you to Poseidon before he declares war."

"What are you talking about?"

Artemis grabbed his hand and gave him a kiss on the lips. Holding a hand on his cheek, she looked at him in the eyes, "I'll explain on the way."


	17. Causing the End

**Hope you enjoy! Took me days and nights to finish this... Explanation at end of chapter… sorry for any errors or mistakes that may or may not be in here.**

"Are you sure you're feeling alright man?" Apollo asked Percy in his doctor tone.

After Percy and Artemis assured Poseidon that he was not dreaming, Artemis flashed Percy to her brother to get him checked. Percy asked for the "appointment" to be between his brother-in-law and himself, so Artemis was left to play with their twins.

Percy nodded and pulled his shirt back on. "Nothing I haven't been through before. Anyway, my physical health isn't what concerns me. It is my mental health. Tartarus has been playing mind games with me, trying to strengthen me to make me a stronger host. My sanity is what I am concerned of."

"Dude, chillax. You sound like some politician."

Percy shrugged, "Practiced habit, I guess."

"Well hopefully a full dosage of my sis and a day in the sun, you'll be good as new."

"Thanks."

"No prob. Now scram!"

. . .

"DADDY!/DAD!" Jake and Sally both yelled, dropping their Legos and running into the arms of their father.

Smiling, Percy stood up with both his kids on either side of his hip, and looked to see Artemis on the stove, making his favorite meal. Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and white rice. He walked behind her and—setting the kids on the ground—hugged her from behind. His hands met over her toned stomach. He peered over her shoulder and after giving her a few kisses on the neck, he took in a deep breath, smelling and sniffing the food.

 _Today, we enjoy and rejoice for my homecoming. Enjoy it, because after today, the real fight begins._

 **(Two weeks later)**

Percy's armor was clinging onto his body for dear life as he sliced a monster in half. He closed his eyes as he stepped over a limp demigod body.

He looked as if he had taken a bath in monster dust, and unlike the last battle, the lines of defense were faltering. The demigods were tiring, and the gods were still not allowed to interfere unless they wanted to be stripped of their immortality. Perseus, Apollo and Artemis were exceptions because they were natural hunters, born to fight alongside the offspring of the Greek gods. Percy roared as he smacked the flat of his shield against the forehead of a cyclops and thrusted his sword straight through the monster's chest. When he pulled Riptide back out, you could no longer see the celestial bronze, only monster dust, blood, and dirt.

Percy did not want to acknowledge the cold grip death seemed to have on his heart.

Angrily, Percy brought his sword down on yet his thousandth enemy today. He was right when he thought that the day he returned was the only day he would receive peace. The next morning, Hermes flashed in on Percy and Artemis informing them that the monsters were attacking once again. For countless amount of days Percy, Apollo and Artemis were stuck in the mortal world, hacking and aiming at enough monsters to overlap the city of Manhattan twice.

He started to retreat back to the resting tent to regain his energy when five monsters circled him. He grinned, monster dust and ichor trickling down the side of his mouth.

"Alright," he said, wielding his sword expertly, "so you think you can defeat your prince, eh? Let's find out," instead of moving from his place, he just flicked his wrist, slitting the throat of a telekhine, and cutting open the shoulder of an empousa. The remaining three monsters, fueled by their anger and pride, charged forward. Percy pulled his left arm up, sparks flying as a sword collided with his shield. He kicked the monster in the chest to push Monster 1 back. As Monster 1 is in a daze, Percy kneeled down on one knee and waved his sword in a deadly arc, cutting off the legs of Monster 3 and having golden dust splatter onto his face. Quickly, Percy stood up and reached to block a blow from between his shoulder blades as he—with his right arm/hand—pulled his sword down over Monster 1's head, effectively cutting the monster in half and sending him back to the Underworld. Turning while transforming into a large black, Alpha wolf, Percy jumped up and snapped the neck of Monster 2, a cyclops. Before the monster can be finished off though, Monster 2 "hugged" Percy around the middle of his body, crushing three of his ribs. Percy whimpered, but fully turned the head of the monster all the way, killing it for hopefully a decade. Limping, Percy reached back to the resting tent, where he was faced with a worried Thalia.

Taking back his human form, he opened up his cloak and looked for an inner pocket to reveal a secret stash of ambrosia. He popped a square into his mouth. "Which line of defense is it now?" He asked, leaning on one of the beams and sighing loudly.

Thalia shook her head.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "No line of defense? So what?"

"Percy, its Artemis. She's having a baby, and soon."

Percy, shocked, sat down. "W-what? That's great!" Coming to his senses he jumped up sky-high, his fist coming into contact with the ceiling of the tent. He felt a small tingle spread through his fingertips and he realized Thalia was trying to electrify him. "Owie. What's the problem with her being pregnant?"

"The problem is that she's going to give birth in a freakin' cell if we don't find her!"

Percy lowered his arm. "What are you talking about? Artemis is—"

"Taken," Thalia cut in. "Artemis has been taken, and the baby? She's due in four days."

Noticing the gravity of the situation, Percy grabbed Thalia's shoulder and flashed them to the "basement" of Percy's palace, a place that was surprisingly neat. Rows upon rows of weapons neatly placed on walls, one area dedicated to planning, another for training, and another for more training. On one wall, there was an exception to the "weapons rule." There were mannequins with clothing on them, each with a different design with a different situation in mind. All the way to the left was a black suit that seemed flexible and had hexagons engraved all over it, indicating it held some secret power. The situation/mission in mind: Stealth.

To the right of the previous suit was a cloak just like Percy's, so was the under-armor, the boots, and the vambraces. Mission: heavy combat.

Thalia didn't have any time to look at the other four suits when Percy pulled her forward, slapped three of the chambers, and causing a reaction. The three chambers rolled forward, showing the shelves of the clothing that they represented in different color and size. The shelves worked like a chart, making the searching process even easier.

"What are we doing here?"

Percy pulled on an even heavier cloak that would hold more weapons. He started to fill it out, and as he stabbed a machete through his belt loop, he turned to face Thalia and passed her two sets of clothing.

"We're ending this fight, once and for all."

 **Please don't hate me! I am soooooo sorry, I've been absolutely** _ **dying**_ **these past two weeks. I've been really sick, and pretty much slept everyday. As soon as I woke up feeling better today, I sucked it up and finished this chapter. I'm again sorry I haven't updated anything, as I said I got really sick and still am not feeling well, so I guess I'll post one chapter for every open story and then head back to bed. Sorry!**


	18. The Fall of the Dark Prince

"This war has been going on for days, and we have lost too many of our allies to continue this fight. There's one, and only one, way to end this."

"How do we do that?"

"There's no we."

Thalia looked startled. "No, Percy, I am _not_ letting you go in alone."

"We have no choice. That's the _only_ way I can go in. I'll distract Father as you and a group of demigods search for my family."

"Father?"

"Sorry, Tartarus, old habit. The only way we can save them is if I do the unthinkable."

"But once it's over, there's no doubt he's going to want revenge from you."

"I know, which is why I won't be around after this."

"No! This is not the time for some suicidal thought—"

"Thalia!" Percy set his hands on both her shoulders as she started to yell at him. "There, is no, other way. Only one of us is going to be able to walk out this fight, if I play my cards right. But I will do _anything_ to ensure the safety of you, Artemis, my family and the Hunt. Twelve years ago I swore an unbreakable oath that if need be, I would lay down my life for the safety of Artemis. Artemis is the Hunt, the Hunt is Artemis, when I accepted the challenge I knew what I was getting myself into. Not only am I her Guardian, but I am also her husband, the father to our children, I have to be absolutely ready for everything. Now listen to me, if I win the fight, we won't have to worry about Tartarus any longer. Do you understand?"

Thalia gulped. She knew if Artemis heard any of this she would be doomed, but she nodded her head nonetheless.

"Good," Percy nodded. He stepped away from his cousin/sister-in-law, and secured his bow on his back. With all the black he had on, there was no doubt he could easily hide within the shadows of the dark pit.

"Grab whatever you need, Jason, Piper, Nico, Leo, Hazel, and Annabeth, and go save my family. And that," he turned to face Thalia before continuing, "is an order." He walked away.

. . .

Percy had marched into a clearing far away from civilization. With his combat boots, black leather hood, and other armor on, he closed his eyes and reached out for the Dark Lord. Not two seconds passed by before an enraged Tartarus appeared before the Dark Angel, who had his large black, Chaos Steel, wings spread out. The man had a large body, with sharp, wolf-like ears, an angular face, and a stance that showed nothing will get passed him. Tartarus smiled sadistically at his "son."

"I see you have been training, my little prince."

There was a low growl that emitted from the back of the Dark Prince's throat. The Guardian twirled Riptide in his hand, his knuckles turning white with the amount of pressure he was applying to the vice-like grip on his sword.

"Enough," Percy said, "I am done with the games. I _am not_ your son! That honor belongs to Lady Hestia and Lord Poseidon! Not you!"

"Ah, but that is only your opinion, is it not? Tell me, am I not the reason you have the capabilities and powers of all my sons and daughters combined and more? Am I not the reason that you are the most powerful being in the—Chaos forgive me if I am wrong—universe?!" His voice started out calm, but as he continued, Tartarus' voice got louder and louder until he was shouting across the clearing.

"Am I not the reason that you _believe_ you have the power to defeat me?! Am I not, the reason why you are able to do what you do? To go ahead and split yourself into multiple people, and have secret affairs without any of them knowing? I made you who you are. I made you King of the Universes. _I_ gave you all the power you possess. And you do not feel obliged?! I AM THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU _ALL_ THAT POWER! YOU ARE HEIR TO MY THRONE!"

"I don't want to be heir to your throne! If being king of the Underworld makes you a monster, I want no part in it. Do you understand? I am, who I am, not because of you or Chaos or Artemis or the freaking universe! I am me because I made myself who I am today!"

Tartarus gave a small, sarcastic chuckle. "So then tell me, Dark Prince, why do you bring me here today?"

Percy raised his sword. "I, Perseus Jackson, challenge Tartarus, for the throne of all his domains." Thunder rumbled. Now it was up to Tartarus of whether he accepts or not.

Tartarus smiled and spread his arms out wide. "I accept this fool's challenge!"

From nowhere, pieces of dark armor started to build itself up on Tartarus, the same armor Percy saw when he was about seventeen. A large sword appeared in Tartarus' hand, causing Percy to grip his sword even tighter.

"Are you aware, young Perseus, that perhaps the both of us might not make it?"

"Yes, I am."

"So then who would take the throne?"

Percy put one foot in front of the other, wings spread and hold up, prepared to sprint forward. "My queen."

Their swords clashed.

. . .

"Where are we supposed to search?"

Thalia sighed as she gathered the demigods Percy had asked her to. "I don't know," she admitted, seemingly defeated. Everyone in the room was tired due to all the fighting, the lines were falling apart. Thalia, for a second, glanced at the bars on Jason's SPQR tattoo, smirking at the fact that her brother-in-law/cousin/Guardian had three more bars than he did, a blow to poor Jason's ego, for he had been with the romans all his life. She averted her attention back to the task at hand.

"I think Percy will let one of us know—"

Annabeth stiffened. "I know where. He just told me. He says that Artemis and all the other captured demigods are back at their base, where he was. He said that where the beast was in the cage, there is a dug-out prison there that will appear once we remove the cage."

"Why does this feel too… easy?" Leo was the one to ask the unspoken question.

Thalia shook her head. "Because we're not doing anything, Leo. We're simply going to walk in, get what we're looking for, and walk out."

"Exactly. Why is it that simple? Why doesn't Jackson do it himself?"

"Gods damnit Jason, why don't you put that pride away for one day?! My _brother_ is out there, giving up his life so that way _we_ can save everyone else's!" Thalia snapped, banging her hands on the metal table. Everyone but Annabeth jumped.

"What are you talking about? Percy's a god."

"Are you in, or are you out?" Thalia didn't have time for this.

"Thalia, _I_ am your brother. Calm down."

Piper shot Jason a glare, she loved her fiancé, she really did, but sometimes his pride and power can get the best of him. "Now is not the time, Jason," she used a bit of charmspeak to get him to stop angering the already enraged Thalia Grace. His eyes glazed over.

"Percy is the one doing all the heavy and dirty work in this mission."

"As always," Annabeth grumbled.

"He is challenging Tartarus," the adult demigods in the room began to murmur amongst one another. "Earlier, when I said he is risking his life, it's because he _is._ He may be immortal, but he swore an oath to lay down his life for Artemis if need be. Today is his day. He asked me to gather you guys, and to come up with a plan to save his family, he told me that was his final order. He's serious about this guys, so we have no room for flaws or failure. Am I understood? Good. I've already placed hunters here, here, and here," she pointed to trees on a map surrounding the area of the Dark Side's base. "Annabeth came up with a plan. Annabeth?"

As Annabeth described the plan in great detail, the family and friends of the soon-to-fall Dark Angel (Percy), listened. The ground shook as the camp's borders were attacked once again. The demigods paid no mind. They were planning their hopefully final mission for this war, right here, right now. They decided to not only save the captured ones, but also have the Hunters and Connor and Travis sabotage the equipment of the monsters. Connor and Travis ran, grinning like the pranksters they are, preparing for the signal. They formed a circle and set their hands on each others shoulders, bowing their heads in praise for the fallen ones.

No one dies in vain, not today, not tomorrow, and not ever.

They moved out, Jason and Piper flying, Hazel and Leo underground, Annabeth and Thalia in the trees, and Nico in the shadows. They moved with the grace and stealth of a panther, and the speed of a cheetah. Deep down, they knew that everyone was thanking their enhanced demigod powers.

By the time they were in position, it was dusk. Thalia looked around her, put a finger to her lips in a shushing manor, and waited as a single cyclops approached. She slid the dagger from her back sheath out of place, and slowly and quietly pulled it out, holding it in a icepick grip. With Percy's assassin silence, she jumped off the branch and onto the shoulders of the cyclops, holding a hand to its mouth and slitting its throat. The ichor and golden dust of the monster splattered onto the ground before disappearing with the wind. She looked up and signals for the others to follow, before taking off on the ground, her steps silent and light and breathing controlled. With the knowledge of this being a close-quarters battle, she left her bow alone, strapped to her back, and sheathed her dagger, pulling out two hunting knives instead and holding the both of them in an icepick grip.

She turned her head, looking left and right, before deciding that the coast was clear. She knew that her sisters were keeping an eye out in case something went wrong. She did not want that to happen. She nodded her head, and the demigods jumped from the trees, flew down, rose from the ground, and ran out of the shadows. They assisted her as she grunted and pushed the large cage back, the metal groaning with the sudden movement. They looked down into the dug-out cell.

There she was, passed out on the floor, demigods surrounding her as her hand laid on her swollen belly. One roman demigod looked up at them, dirt on her face.

"I think you guys are a little too late."

Percy gave out a cry as he had no other choice but to use his wing as a shield. His wing remained intact, but it still hurt like hell. He growled. He had had enough with these games, and was ready for the end. Roaring, he charged.

Tartarus brought his sword in front of him and blocked the blow, chuckling a bit at the sudden surprise.

"Who do you think you are? You can't beat me. Not without dying yourself."

Both men pulled back, breathing heavily from the ongoing, three hour fight they have been having. Percy pulled out a dagger from its sheath and held it icepick style. Tartarus laughed. "That won't do anything, how pathetic—"

"I am Perseus Jackson, husband of Artemis and Chaos. Champion of Hestia, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Chaos, Ares and Hermes. Bane of Kronos and Gaia. Son of Hestia, Poseidon and Sally Jackson. God of balance, swordsmanship, liquid and tides, guardians, wolves, loyalty, time, earth. King of the universe and creation, demigods and heroes. The Fifteenth Olympian, and," Percy spread out his midnight black wings, using his power over the earth to create a large hole that leads straight to the Underworld, "your end."

He flew forward, sword straight as he aimed for Tartarus' chest, Tartarus took a step back.

With a loud roar, Percy closed his eyes as he impaled his "father" in the chest, wincing as Tartarus stabbed him in the chest with a sword of his own. Percy kept on flying, behind his closed eyes, seeing the face of his wife, children, friends and family. He almost smiled with how pathetic his ending looks and sounds, but knew there was still more to come.

He opened his eyes when he felt the sword being pulled out of his chest, and then thrusted back in.

Tartarus was practically gutting the Dark Prince.

Percy started to fly faster than the speed of light and began to push downward, into the never-ending plummet to the Underworld. Suddenly, the dark walls lit up as if a projector had been turned on, and he watched as silent movies started to play.

These were memories, taken with his eyes as the camera. To his left, he saw—while ignoring the sword still thrusting in and out of his chest and abdomen—the first time he met everyone he has ever seen. Sally, Gabe, Grover, Rachel, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, Bianca, Zoe, Artemis, Chiron, Poseidon, Athena, Hestia—everyone. And slowly, those memories faded as they ran out. He turned to his right.

He saw all his laughs and smiles and cries and every other emotion he has and ever will feel/felt. He saw Artemis and him falling in love, Sally and Jake being born, the late nights he and Artemis spent together, all his memories were being portrayed on the walls of the earth like some movie.

 _She's pregnant._

He closed his eyes and grabbed Tartarus' sword by the blade, ichor spewing from his hand. He pulled his sword out of Tartarus and stabbed him in the heart, pulling out and then cutting his wrists. If he was going to go down, he was going to go down like a true warrior.

He saw the hands of the Fates stretch out a bit of yarn, and cut.

Tartarus' eyes widened, noticing this new-found courage in the eyes of his Dark Prince. So this wasn't just a dream, he smiled, they were truly falling, and after the fall, both of them would not make it.

Percy closed his eyes as he saw the approaching end, _"Say hi to Carter for me?"_ He asked the wind, accepting his end.

He swung.

Tartarus' head hit the ground before his detached and hacked up body did.

There was an explosion due to the impact, and Perseus Jackson lay motionless on the ground, unmoving.

The Guardian had fulfilled his duty.


	19. (Jump-Start)

"Alright, just a few more steps and we'll be safe inside."

Four Huntresses, including Thalia, were carrying Artemis to the infirmary. They were already stepping into the doorway when Artemis clenched her teeth and whimpered. A tear ran down her cheek as she arched her back and grunted as if she were repeatedly being stabbed. There was a bright golden glow from beneath her garb.

"Percy… where's Percy?"

"He's okay."

"I want Percy! Where is he? He's in trouble. Percy is in trouble…" she continued, thrashing around. Thalia gritted her teeth, knowing either Percy failed or succeeded.

 _That doesn't help at all._

Then suddenly, something snapped. Artemis' back straightened, her eyes widened and watered, and her thrashing stopped. She brought a hand up to her mouth, gently rubbing a golden tattoo with her other hand she had on her side that seemed to be fading. Tears streamed down Artemis' wide eyes.

She was finally broken.

A loud sob escaped from between her fingers, so heartbreaking, it was making Thalia want to curl up and rock back and forth.

"No! No, no, no, _no!"_

Artemis cried even more, not caring that all the demigods could see. Her husband was gone, dead, and the one thing that confirms it is the fading bond on her side. Her Huntresses struggled to keep her from falling, but eventually they were able to set her on a bed. They all cursed the hormones.

Everyone was shooed out of the room, Thalia threatening to electrify everyone. She called for her half-brother Apollo, and he was there one full minute later, Artemis was already ready to deliver this baby.

 **_|M.M.J. 19|_**

Percy laid in a large bed, covered in one thin sheet, and only in his boxers. His back felt as though it snapped like a pencil, and he pulled his eyes shut even tighter when he tried to move. He turned his head to the side to find a dresser with his cloak, weapons, bandolier, armor, and his Guardian uniform folded neatly on it and his dirty boots resting in front of the dresser.

Groaning, he sat up and looked down at himself. On his left side, he saw a star-shaped scar, a new addition to his ever-growing display. He winced as a memory pounded through his head. Tartarus gutting him; him beheading his enemy; dying.

"What the…" the simple, unfinished sentence banged around in his head like a pinball. He groaned and held his head, not being able to remember the last time he had a headache this big. His back felt as though some full-sized titan used it as a trampoline for days upon days. He was in pain.

 _Guess the only real way to live is by dying…_

Suddenly, Percy felt a jerk in his essence, a pain in his abdominal area, a sense of loss and guilt in his heart. It was clear to him then what was going on.

Artemis had given birth to their daughter…

…and he wasn't there to see the miracle.

 **Sorry for the super long wait, yes I know this is sort of anticlimatic. I've had a SUPER busy few weeks, and I'm glad to know I still have some faithful readers left. This chapter, as is my most recent for AMWAH, and pretty soon TMFD, it is just to kick-start my writing so that I can get back into the game! Hope you guys are having fun, and don't forget to smile! =)**


	20. (Short, but hopefully will do)

**I hope everyone is enjoying summer. Here's a new chapter, and I'm sorry for the long wait.**

 **WARNING: Not proof read. You have been warned. Now it's late so… good night guys! (Or morning, if that's your case.)**

Camp Half-Blood was a mess. Lifeless bodies strewn here and there, incapacitated, injured, and marred demigods were either laying around, trying to regain their energy, or being brought into makeshift infirmaries. In the middle of the tenth wave of the day, all the monsters had stopped, as if they were battery-operated toys that were drained of life. They took this opportunity to dispatch them into the ditches of hell, aka Tartarus. They threw their helmets up into the air and cheered for their victory, reuniting with friends and family, bowing to and thanking the godly twins. The demigods shared flasks of water and nectar, all the camp was covered in a blanket of murmurs as its residents mourned over their fallen soldiers, and collected the dead bodies to later burn in tribute. The Apollo cabin healed the injuries, and handed out ambrosia and nectar to those who needed it. The satyrs played music and helped taking inventory of the fallen soldiers.

A sharp cry pierced the atmosphere and half the camp with no experience unsheathed their swords, but the older campers chuckled and looked up to the sky, watching the clouds give way for the birth of a new child. The Immortals smiled for the birth of a new legend, and gathered to greet the new ball of life, a bit of the essence of their beloved Percy within this new being. Clarisse La Rue having had a special type of bond to Perseus Jackson, kept the other Immortals from swarming into the infirmary, feeling a protectiveness towards Jackson's family. The Immortals collected themselves. Eleven of the twelve legendary Immortals had gathered to meet the new baby. The twelfth, already inside, helping with the delivery of the child.

"What's her name?" Hazel asked, cooing at the sight of the beautiful baby.

Thalia smiled as she handed Artemis the small baby in a bundle of blankets. "Carter, I believe."

"Why Carter?"

"We've been expecting her, I guess you can say."

Artemis remembered her first few months with Percy, when she had awoken him and he mumbled about dreaming of giving a bunny shaped thing to his child Carter. The name only seemed fitting in his memory.

"Welcome to the world, Carter," Annabeth smiled.

. . .

"He's not gone, Perseus."

Percy sighed. After sleeping in for another day, he found himself dragging himself around a familiar looking palace, and found his way into the kitchen. He nearly lost his mind when he found Chaos there, plating blue pancakes and serving him OJ. He sat quietly, shocked, as Chaos explained how he was able to defeat Tartarus and claim the throne of his prison. He dropped his fork and nearly threw up at her last sentence.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Tartarus' body has forever faded, that I assure you, but his spirit and conscience lives on. With you. You are his new bearer. With enough practice, you can learn to keep him at bay, but he _will_ whisper little nothings into your ear, and attempt to slowly drive you mad. This was part of his plan. He wanted to take over you body for the power you poses, but this position right now is just a slight set-back. We must be careful."

"We?" Percy croaked.

She nodded. "Because he has the power to control you, he could use your hold over anyone you have, your children and Artemis for example, and persuade them into doing his bidding."

"My family is not weak!" Percy shouted, ignoring the bombs going off in his skull, and banging his hands on the table. Chaos barely flinched.

"We still must take precautions. You must take precautions. From now on he knows what you know. He knows what you don't, and knows what you'll soon come to know. That is how we must think. Do you understand?"

Percy felt himself submitting into his savior's orders, and looked down at his folded hands in his lap. He nodded his head, for once not trying to question anyone's motive, and felt a tear slide down his cheek. Chaos moved to stand beside him, and cradled his head into her abdomen as he fisted her blouse, silently crying at his position. When he settled down, he nodded, and unlocked the wheels to his wheelchair, silently begging for Chaos to steer him in the right direction. Chaos sighed, knowing how much her lover hated being so useless, and nodded, pushing him into their shared bedroom, helping him onto the bed and sitting on the chair adjacent to him. She held his hand as he fell asleep, and eventually, played doctor again as she checked on the progress of his—now regenerating—missing bit of spine.

When a mug is broken, it is quite easy to glue the pieces back together if you are able to find them all, though it would not be as sturdy as it used to. When a mug is broken and there is a missing piece, that's when you know, things will never be same again—at least, the mug won't.

The mug becomes useless, and eventually, gets thrown away and forgotten of.

. . .

 **So there we go, a small little filler chapter to help the story flow. Hope you guys are enjoying the small bit of time we call—Summer.**


	21. King and Queen

**Please leave a review, reviews save stories. No really, not joking. Don't be afraid to checkout my profile and other stories!**

 **. . .**

Chaos regularly checked the progress of Percy's regenerating spine, her lover crying himself to sleep at the feeling of uselessness. He needed a wheelchair to get around for the gods' sake!

"You've regenerated enough power to teleport yourself back to earth," Chaos said, face stoic as she sat in front of Percy. Said God of Heroes, King of Demigods, looked up from his lap, his eyes shinning with hope. Chaos sighed. "But we do need to work on shielding your thoughts from Tartarus. If you'd like, we could continue your training on ear—"

"Yes!"

"—but then I'll have to accompany you," Chaos finished, sending a pointed glare towards Percy for interrupting her. Percy dropped his head down in apologies.

"How long until…"

"You still have six weeks left to be on that wheelchair. A great deal of your spine is still missing and is regenerating faster than any other Olympian's would."

Percy sighed, not liking being "benched" from the possibly still-going war. He wheeled out of the kitchen, having ate his dinner, and made way to the room, where he had Chaos help dress him in brown sandals, white shorts, and a white linen shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Chaos herself dressed to look presentable. Percy was not able to see what she was actually wearing, for his vision was blocked by the cloak she was wearing. The cloak had a moving image of the universe, showcasing all the stars and planets, moons and suns created by Chaos.

. . .

"Remind me again why I look like a normal teenager on his way to the beach?"

"The loose clothing will help the circulation of your ichor, allowing it to continue the regenerating and healing process of your spine and any other wounds _inside_ your body."

Unlocking the locks to the wheels, Percy sighed as he allowed Chaos to steer with the handles. Before long, he felt his body split into atoms before they came together again, albeit quite sluggishly, and formed himself and his wheelchair. The sudden feeling of nausea took hold of his body from the foreign feeling of teleporting, before he was engulfed into a hug by multiple persons.

. . .

 **On Earth, before the arrival:**

It had now been a month since Percy's disappearance. The Jackson family (Jake and Sally, Artemis and Carter) had been helped a great deal. Although Artemis was unaware of the "help" they were receiving, Clarisse would shut down any conversation concerning Percy and "abandoning" his responsibilities by challenging the speaker to a duel and thoroughly beating the demigod to submission. Annabeth and Thalia would offer their services to help around in the household, though they found themselves enjoying the time they spent with their niece and nephew. Artemis caught onto the help she was unknowingly receiving when Piper offered to take Jake and Sally to the mortal world and go shopping. If only to take them off her hands for a bit. Artemis—though she _was_ upset because she was a strong, independent woman that needed no one's help—agreed if only because Carter had hit a small growth spurt and needed to be fed and nursed more regularly, she did not want her other two children to feel neglected. A month and two weeks passed and yet, no word from her beloved.

Artemis sighed as she sat down, just having fed baby Carter her fourth meal of the day. She sensed something off in her palace, _her_ palace, not _his,_ as she noticed a small footprint, perhaps a female's, accompanied by a heavy large footprint. Instantly, Artemis ran up the stairs to Carters room, bow in hand, arrow notched, and string pulled back, ready to fire at the intruder.

"My apologies, Lady Artemis." Before her, kneeled two armored Immortals.

"State your business."

"Word on Lord Perseus has gone 'round Camp Half-Blood. The other Immortals claim that he has returned home along with Lady Chaos. Lady Artemis, he—"

"Where," Artemis was able to growl out. Hazel sighed and looked over at Frank before back again at Artemis.

"He is in his cabin. But Lady Artemis, with all due respect—"

"You're dismissed. Though, please do inform Thalia and Annabeth that I will be gone. I would much rather have you stay here until Immortal Frank has retrieved them."

Hazel nodded.

A few moments later, Artemis found herself in the Perseus Cabin at CHB, looking around wildly for her husband. She heard a sigh, and then clicking and the creaking of the floorboards as something was rolled out behind her.

"Artemis? By the gods, I wish I could've been better for you."

Artemis turned around at the sound of his voice, and found nothing but the door. Then, she looked down, nearly collapsing to her knees at the sight of her husband, so fragile, so broken, on his wheelchair. He lent forward to kiss her on the forehead, closing his eyes as both relished the moment. The matriarch of the family nearly let a tear slip as she held in a sob. Her husband was home. Her beloved was sitting right in front of her. When she felt the body of her love shake, she stood up and caressed the side of his face with her calloused hands. He leaned into her, resting his forehead on her once swollen belly. She cradled his head to her, closing her eyes before bending forward to kiss him on the head.

"My love," she said, a tear unsheathing itself from behind her eyelid, "you're home."

"Yes, yes I am. I'm finally home. I'm home, Artemis, I'm home," he said, soothing both himself and his wife at the same time. The two stood/sat like that for quite a while, reminiscing about their many years together, the many months and years and decades and days that lead to this very moment.

Artemis wished more could have been done at the time; perhaps a grand kiss, or a tight embrace, but the extent to his injuries were unknown to her, therefore she could accidentally hurt him. Her heart stopped.

" _Sorry,"_ he had whispered to her, "Gods, Artemis, I'm _so_ sorry. I didn't mean—I didn't know—it didn't, I didn't—"

"I suppose it is time to properly introduce ourselves. This, young fine man before you is Lord Perseus—"

"—I know my husband—"

"—the Fifteenth Olympian, King of all creation and the Universe. I am Lady Chaos, first ever primordial being and _Queen_ of all creation and the Universe."

"I'm so sorry," Percy said, rocking back and forth in his chair.

Artemis looked down at him.

Now she understood.

. . .

 **That's a wrap for tonight. Guys, I'm about to K.O. right now. I'm soooooo tired. I've been up for nearly 26 hours straight now. I hope you guys have a good rest. Oh! Before I forget, I was wondering if anyone would like to beta the chapters of my first few stories? Especially the first chapters of The Life of Percy and Artemis J. Leave a review if you're interested and I'll get back to you.**

 **If you wanna help me get into the "writing groove" leave a review. Or write up something in a review that'll crack me up. I don't know, be creative! Alright. Goooooood night.**

 **Note: I hope no one here has been affected by the recent natural disasters. My prayers and thoughts are with you and all those out there that have been affected and/or are grieving for their lost ones. I hope everyone makes it home tonight and tomorrow and everyday and enjoys some time with their family and loved ones. 'Cause guys, no one is here forever, as harsh as it may seem. Enjoy your time guys, one day, you're going to sit back and think to yourself,** _ **"Man, I should've hugged my Ma that day, why didn't I?"**_ **Or something among those lines. Be safe, and cherish your time as though it were your last day on earth. You never know, it may not be yours, but someone else's. Good night, and I'll write ya next time.**

 **Don't be shy, review!**


	22. Pray to the gods of FanFiction (hehe)

… **(cue crickets)...Please don't send me to Hades! I'm** _ **so sorry.**_ **I just got a huge case of writers block. Or maybe I'm just too easily distracted by… things. Heh, yeah,** _ **"things."**_

 **So anyway, I've been trying to sit down and type this chapter out for a good few weeks now and guess what.**

 **I got nothing.**

 **Absolutely nothing.**

 **Yay me! (Note sarcasm.) So anyway as some of you might already know, in my case of writers block I sat down and wrote down a chapter, published it, and it takes place in the Twilight fandom. Check it out, you don't need to like or even know about Twilight to read it. It's called** _ **Do You Believe In Soulmates?**_ **And feel free to type up a review to answer some of the questions on the bottom of that story.**

 **Back to MMJ (Mrs. & Mrs. Jackson), I hope you can forgive me for my untimely updates, it's really hard with my new busy schedule. Okay okay, I'll shut up now. Enjoy**

 **(Spends twenty minutes staring at screen thinking of ways to start chapter) finally got a good start to the chapter after reading this quote:**

" _ **Break her heart and she is yours forever."**_

 **. . .**

 _Now she understood._

"It was the only way to keep him alive."

 _Now she understood._

"Please understand, this is all I could do."

 _Now she understood._

With her chin held high, Artemis retreats, away from Perseus.

"I understand," she nods, gives a slight bow of her head, and simply walks out of the cabin.

She doesn't turn back.

. . .

Later, Thalia finds Artemis in her tent, stabbing away at some old, abused war map. She immediately interprets the old habit, and clenched her teeth. _He_ was the only good man left.

Now there are none.

"They lie," are the words that greet her.

"Who?" Thalia asks tentatively. She ducks her head and zips the front of the tent closed, knowing full well no one outside will be able to hear.

"Those disgusting, filthy animals. They lie. They all do. Men lie, they manipulate, and they kill." She steps back and sits on her bed, head in hands, elbows on knees. Thalia recognizes this position, for she herself had bore witness to it many times before. This was one of defeat, of unshared burdens. Of burdens so strong, so heavy, they are able to bring the strongest ones to their knees. Many warriors held this position after a day of war, a day of loss and death. Many family members held this position for grieving purposes. Artemis held it for something much deeper.

This was the burden of love.

"Though," Artemis chokes back a laugh, "they are such skilled killers. For they do not kill with a sword, a knife or a bow. No. They can easily twist you and manipulate you to the point of no return. To the point when they can simply decide to set down a set of keys, say a simple word, or say nothing at all; and your world crumbles. It shatters and it crumbles—just for them. Just. For. Them."

"They target the weak," she continues, her voice lowering. Thalia strains to hear the rest of her small speech—no, her confession, for speeches from Artemis she had heard many times before. This—a true, heartfelt confession, is something she had not heard yet. "They target them and take control of them and they manipulate them and they—and they fill them with empty promises and sad happiness. And then what do they do? They play with them. Once they're tired with their target, they cast them aside like a broken toy and move on, looking for the next one," a single, lone tear finds its way past the walls of Artemis's eyelids. Thalia wipes away at it. The end of her confession is near, she knows this for a fact.

"And then they win."

 _Break her heart,_ Thalia remembers reading once, _and she is yours forever._

She never knew how true this could be.

Too bad it was Artemis to show her the true pain of love.

 _Break her heart and she is forever yours._

Thalia breaks, a single tear joining Artemis's on the ground.

. . .

Percy didn't know what to do with the knowledge of the possibility—no, of the certainty that Artemis would no longer even want to look at him.

It made him want to fade. He looked down at the ground, nearly demanding for it to open up and place him where he belongs to spend the rest of his eternity. In the deepest pits of Tartarus.

"She will forgive you," are the words that Chaos says. Percy shrugs off her hand from his shoulder, nearly violently, and shakes his head side to side as though he were trying to crack it.

"Is she Annabeth?"

Chaos understands the meaning to this question. It is not the he has _settled_ with Artemis because he can not have Annabeth. It is because she is not Annabeth he understands the pain.

Annabeth cheated on him. He has cheated on Artemis. Unknowingly to him, Annabeth still loves him.

He still loves Artemis.

Chaos sighs and allows her lone hand to fall to her side. "No, she is not," she finally responds, and Percy has his head hung in shame.

 _Knock, knock._

The cabin door creaks open, and a small, innocent cry is let out. A cute yawn is followed soon after when the intruder continues to sway back and forth, _sh-_ ing to calm the small infant. Chaos teleports away, deciding to watch from afar. Percy let's his head up, hoping the person is Artemis returning.

No such luck.

Instead, Annabeth walks in, a small baby in a bundle of silver and sea green blankets with a soft hat, rosy, pink cheeks and small red hands. He stares at the small creation in awe, for most immortal children are born with a golden haze to them. Annabeth, after patting the baby's behind, looks up and smiles at the sight of her once-lover, and now friend. Her eyes have a sparkle to them as she hands the baby over to the father, and set a white towel over his shoulder.

"The boys were kicked out of the cabin after being rendered useless when it comes to female newborns. Piper and Hazel helped clean her up while I fed her. This is Carter. The new edition to the Jackson Clan."

"She's beautiful," Percy whispers, as though the raspiness of his voice would harm the ears of his newborn child.

The rest of the evening is filled of Percy talking to his new daughter, Annabeth, then him and Chaos talking of his condition, Chaos checking on Percy's spine, and little baby Carter being held in the arms of her crying mother.

 **. . .**

 **The heck? What in the world. This is the shortest chapter in all of FanFiction! I'm so sorry! Writers block I tell you, you must pray to the angry gods of writing!** **Heh, have a good one guys.**


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